A new page is ready on the Islayinfo website. It's a page about Ballygrant, the oldest established village on Islay. The history of this wee village goes back to the days of the meal mill in the village and perhaps even earlier. The earliest record of the mill at Ballygrant appears in a 1686 rent roll and then regularly throughout the 18th century. Ballygrant is an anglicised version of the Gaelic Baill a Ghrana, the town of the grain. Ballygrant is surrounded by good arable land where barley as well as oats would have been grown to supply the local (farm) distillery, now Lossit Kennels. Besides whisky and grain, Ballygrant was also known for the lead and silver mining industry from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Today Ballygrant is a nice village with its own village hall, a good well assorted shop annex post office and a good restaurant/Inn, the Ballygrant Inn. The area offers plenty possibilities for wonderful (woodland) walks, fishing in Loch Ballygrant, Loch Lossit and Loch nan Cadhan and Finlaggan is only a ten minute walk from the centre of the village. It's here, next to the quarry, where you find the start of the Glen Road to Bridgend/Bowmore or Port Ellen, a must for every visitor! More information is available on the new Ballygrant Page

Loch Ballygrant and Paps of Jura

Tag: ballygrant finlaggan glen road lead mining village