Portballintrae  lies at the mouth of a shallow river valley which was once the outflow of melting glaciers. The Harbour is well protected within a small horseshoe bay and is still home port to several fishermen, though gradually pleasure craft are replacing the berths of working boats.

During the 1600s Portballintrae had its own Customs House which served the village and castle of Dunluce. The harbour was the nearest safe anchorage and landing place which serviced the growing settlement and its commerce.  Dunluce  grew into a thriving location for goods and several Scottish merchants settled here. The flow of commerce must have been high to justify the building and operation of a Customs facility. The graveyard at St Cuthberts has several identifiable headstones of merchant families from Scotland including one dating to 1610.

It was at the harbour  in May 1967 that the first of 12,000 artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the Spanish Galleass 'La Girona' came ashore. The Belgian marine archeologist Robert Stenuit found and excavated the wreck site during 1967 and 1968. After intensive searches through libraries in Europe, he arrived at the Causeway only to find a local guide book which told him that Port na Spaniagh was the site of a Spanish Galleon, and it was true.  The treasure had lay untouched for 380 years.The ship foundered in horrendous seas during the night of October 28th,1588 on Lacada Point close to the acroos the bay from the causeway stones.

Recovered items included gold and silver coins, jewellery, silver plates, a bronze cannon, and eleven of twelve 'lapis lazuli' cameos - Frank Madden, the licensee of the site, found the last cameo more recently - making the set complete.

Around the village you will still see some classic examples of  our architectural heritage, the Old Coastguard Station built in 1874 sits elegantly on the hill overlooking the bay, on the otherside is Seaport Lodge. Known locally as Leslie's Castle, it built in the 1770's by the Leslie family as a bathing lodge. The beautiful thatched cottage overlooking the harbour is the last remaining example of the style of cottage that once surrounded the wee bay.

Another very important site is Lissanduff which you will find near the large car park overlooking Bushfoot Strand. This consists of a pair of large concemtric ring forts. One is clay lined and designed specifically to hold water for what is presumed to be have been water rituals. The other would have served as a fortified settlement ofr people and animals. The site dates to the Bronze Age (3000BC) and has yet to be fully understood or archeologically excavated.