This article is about Ailsa Craig, a Scottish island. See also Ailsa Craig, Ontario for the Canadian town.
Ailsa Craig (note the Kintyre penninsula in the background)
Ailsa Craig is a small island in the North Channel of the Irish Sea which lies approximately 10 miles west of Girvan in Scotland. It belongs to the administrative district of South Ayrshire, in the ancient parish of Dailly. Rising to 338 metres, this volcanic rock was a haven for Roman Catholics during the Scottish Reformation and is now a bird sanctuary known for its gannets. It is also a source for a particular type of granite (known as "Ailsite") used to make curling stones.
The Ailsa Craig is nicknamed by locals as "Paddy's Milestone", owing to is position, which is approximately halfway between Glasgow and Belfast.
The island is uninhabited, and is home to an automatic lighthouse and a ruined castle.
Ailsagranite became the favoured stone of the curler and stones are today still removed to be manufactured into what we see on TV when the curling is played.
Following many shipwrecks on Ailsa during the 1800’s, the erection of a lighthouse on the island was thought essential and to this end part of the foreland area was sold to the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1882 to provide ground for the lighthouse to be built.
Ailsa is principally a seabird colony and is famous for its Gannets.
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