The broken keep of Ardstinchar Castle stands on a rocky knoll above the River Stinchar in Ballantrae. The Kennedys built the castle in the 1400s and Mary, Queen of Scots stayed there in 1563; by the 1770s it was falling apart and was quarried for the bridge over the river. In the old kirkyard, the Kennedy Aisle, a burial vault of about 1604 open by arrangement, has life-size stone effigies of Gilbert Kennedy of Bargany and his wife; he was ambushed and killed in 1601 by the Earl of Cassillis’s men. The beach, shingle and sand, has views of Ailsa Craig and Arran, and the shingle spits to the south are protected for plants such as the scarce oyster plant.
