Ballantrae

Ballantrae is best known for being the  setting of  Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The Master of Ballantrae' and as the fictional setting of Sawney Bean's infamous deeds.   It was also the real site of the arrest of Alexander Peden by Major William Cockburn.  Peden was imprisoned on the bass rock for four years and three months followed by a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh tollbooth.   Ballantrae was also a hotbed of smuggling in the 18th century due to it's location on the coast being rather secluded but but at the same time quite close to major areas of population such as Ayr.  It was during this time that Robert Burns served as an exciseman in the area.   The castle in the picture was built by the Kennedy's in the 15th century.