There is a vitrified
Iron Age fort at
Carradale Point. In the 17th and 18th centuries there were small communities of
crofters and
fishermen working in and around Carradale. The introduction of
steam ships transformed
Kintyre and from the 1830s until the
Second World War daily steamers went from
Campbeltown to
Glasgow, calling at Carradale. With the
herring industry thriving, Carradale's first
pier was built in 1858, developing and encouraging the
holiday trade. This situation persisted until the
Second World War, with hotels developing and a tradition of families returning year after year. Now this situation is reversing again. Carradale still has a
fishing fleet, largely dealing in
shellfish. Since the 1950s,
forestry has also played an important part in the village with large scale afforestation taking place. The
novelist and
poet Naomi Mitchison lived in
Carradale House from 1938 until her death in 1999.
Suffragette Flora Drummond, who was raised on Arran, lived in Carradale from 1944 until her death in 1949. ==Segments of the village==