The beach consists of shingle and sand and offers views of Ailsa Craig, the Isle of Arran and Kintyre.

In June 1673, while holding a conventicle at Knockdow near Ballantrae, Alexander Peden was captured by Major William Cockburn, and condemned by the Privy Council to four years and three months' imprisonment on the Bass Rock and a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh Tolbooth.

James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, was the owner of Glenapp Castle on the eponymous estate,[1] and flowering shrubs spell out the name of his daughter on the opposite side of the glen.

[3] The Ballantrae Windmill of 1696 on Mill Hill above the raised beach cliffs is one of the oldest industrial buildings in Scotland.

Ballantrae has lent its name to a subdivision of the Arenig group, which is the name applied to the lowest stage of the Ordovician system.