-- History --
It
is known that Ailsa Craig was owned by the Abbey at Crossraguel
in the early 1400's, when apparently, ambitious and therefore
recalcitrant abbots were sent here to keep them from temptation
!! In those days, abbots weren’t necessarily men of holy
orders, so it must have been a busy place. Nowadays, the really
energetic visitor may have a chance to climb to the top, via the
path that passes a ruined castle. The castle had three storeys
and was built by the powerful Hamilton family in the late 1500's,
after Philip of Spain tried to capture the island for himself.
The
exporting of birds' feathers was an important industry in days
gone by, and it is said that Robert Burns ordered a quantity for
a new bed when he married Jean Armour. Other writers have been
influenced by Ailsa Craig as well, and both Keats and Wordsworth
have mentioned it in their work. Oddly, Burns makes only fleeting
mention of it.
Granite
was mined from Ailsa Craig from the early 1800's to about 1971
for the making of kerb stones and curling stones, though recently,
there has been a bit of a revival of quarrying, with one factory
being licenced to take the granite. The items are made in Mauchline
and exported all over the world.
From a maximum population of around 30 people comprising the lighthouse
keepers and the granite miners the islands is of course these
days home to nobody other than the birds. So many birds in fact
call Ailsa Craig home that it's actually the third largest gannet
colony in the world with around about 70,000 birds. |
