Ballantrae Lifeboat Station
former lifeboat station in Scotland
Ballantrae Lifeboat Station was located on the south-west coast of Scotland at Ballantrae, a village approximately 17 miles (27 km) north of Stranraer, in the county of South Ayrshire, historically Ayrshire.
A lifeboat was first stationed at Ballantrae by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1871.
After operating for 48 years, Ballantrae Lifeboat Station closed in 1919.
History
At the meeting of the RNLI Committee of Management on Thursday 2 December 1869, with reference to the application of local residents, and the subsequent visit and report of the RNLI Inspector of Lifeboats, it was decided to establish a lifeboat station at Ballantrae. It was also decided to appropriate the legacy of the late Mrs Harriot Richardson of Greenwich to the station, and that the lifeboat placed on station was to be named William and Harriot, in accordance with her wishes.
The RNLI journal 'The Lifeboat' of 1 August 1872 reported a 33-foot self-righting 'Pulling and Sailing' (P&S) lifeboat, one with sails and 10 oars, arriving on station in January 1871. It had been deemed that there were sufficient fishermen resident locally, to be able to crew the lifeboat, which had been transported along with its carriage to Girvan by the London and North-Western and Glasgow and South Western railway companies, the latter being free of charge. The lifeboat, which cost £284-15s, was met by her crew, who then sailed her down to Ballantrae, with the carriage being taken by road.
At a ceremony on 1 February 1871, the lifeboat was paraded through the village to the newly built boathouse, which cost £194-16s, and was duly named William and Harriot (ON 268), before being demonstrated to the assembled crowd.
At 20:00 on the 23 January 1877, the Ballantrae lifeboat was launched to the aid of the brig Aurora, of Ardrossan, on passage from Belfast.
“Ballantrae Lifeboat Station” enters the record as former lifeboat station in Scotland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ballantrae, Lifeboat and Station can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131564889. Authority coordinates are 55.104, -5.008. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1871, 1919, 1869 and 1872.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ballantrae Lifeboat Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.