Stranraer

Categories: Dumfries and Galloway | Towns in Scotland

Stranraer (An t-Sròn Reamhar in Gaelic) is a town in the south of Scotland in the west of the region of Dumfries and Galloway and was formerly in the county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhinns of Galloway to the mainland.

It is one of the administrative centres of the region, but best known as a ferryport connecting Scotland with Belfast and Larne in Northern Ireland. In 2003 Stena Line announced plans to transfer its operations to a new port at Old House Point, north of Cairnryan. Later Stena and P&O announced an agreement to share Cairryan port. The move north is part of an effort to shorthen the journey time of the Stena HSS service (High-speed Sea Service) and increase sailings from four to five per day. The HSS, a high-speed catamaran, is obliged to slow considerably when in Loch Ryan and Belfast Lough due to the large wake which it produces at higher speeds. The sailing time from Cairnryan to Stranraer is approximately ten minutes, thus twenty minutes could be saved per sailing.

The Old Town Hall, built in 1776, now houses Stranraer Museum with its displays of Victorian Wigtownshire and the town's polar explorers, Sir John Ross and his nephew James Clark Ross.

The Castle of St. John is a medieval tower house, built around 1500 by the Adairs of Kilhilt. It has been used as a home, a court, a prison and a military garrison, the latter during the Killing Times in the 1680s. Stranraer became a burgh of barony in 1596 and a royal burgh in 1617.

The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic "An Sron Reamhar" meaning literally "The Fat Nose", but which more poetically might be rendered as "the broad headland".