스트레인에어(Stranraer)

스트레인에어(Stranraer). 스코틀랜드(Scotland)

 

 

Early Stranraer

Six hundred years ago Stranraer did not exist. All you would have seen then from this point was a stream running into the loch and a few fishermen's cottages. By the early 1600s the scene had changed completely. There was now a thriving small town with a market place, a church, a mill and leather tanneries. Stranraer grew quickly and soon became the most important settlement in Wigtownshire.

 

A bird's eye view showing Stranraer in the 1640s. In the foreground is the Castle of St John which was built in 1510 as the family home of the Adairs. Beyond the Town Burn - which today runs in a tunnel beneath Castle Square - is a road lined with merchants' houses leading to the market place and the Tolbooth. The Tolbooth is where the town council meets and is also the town prison. The market cross is in front of the Tolbooth and behind it is the parish church, newly built in 1642. Stranraer is the main market town for the Rhins of Galloway and is soon to become the largest town in Wigtownshire.

 

Stranraer is a Gaelic place-name. It means 'fat stream' and refers to the place where the Town Burn joins Loch Ryan.

 

To find out more about the town's history visit Stranraer Museum (open all year) and the Castle of St John (open June-September).

 

Victorian Stranraer

By the middle of the 19th century Stranraer had become a busy market town with a small but important harbour. The town's trade was based on leather tanning, fishing, boat building and linen weaving and in the 1820s there was even a cotton mill and a whisky distillery.

 

This is Stranraer in the 1850s - compare this view with the one on the other panel and see how the town has grown. The Castle of St John is now the town prison and where you are standing is the back yard of one of the many shops and houses that have been built around the castle. The Town Burn is still an open stream - and now an open sewer too - and where it runs into the loch is a large timber yard and the town's gas works. Nearby, with a red brick chimney, is the town brewery - today the site of Stranraer Library. Outside the Town Hall, built in 1777, are market stalls and cattle pens.

 

Jutting into the loch is the West Pier. This was built by the Town Council in 1820 to encourage trade and also to raise revenue. The pier is being used by local boats sailing to Ireland and other small ports along the west coast of Scotland. Paddle steamers are carrying passengers and goods to Glasgow and Belfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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