Cairnryan Port. 스트레인에어(Stranraer)

Cairnryan Port. 스트레인에어(Stranraer). 스코틀랜드(Scotland)

 

Cairnryan and the Mulberry harbour project

This place played a crucial role in the history of the Second World War. It is where work began on part of the famous Mulberry Harbour project. This was a plan to create a series of floating harbnours which could be towed across the English Channel and used during D-Day landings.

 

in 1943 the Military Port's concrete production yard was reopened and used to make Spud Pontoons. These were huge floating pierheads. They had four moveable legs which rested on the sea bottom and could be adjusted with the tide. Ships berthed against the pierheads.

Supplies were unloaded at the piers and taken ashore along a network of floating roadways.

 

The contract for making the Mulberry pierheads was given to Alexander Findlay & Co. Ltd, an engineering firm at Motherwell. Thirteen pierheads wer built at their Leith yard and three wer built here at Cairnryan. Additional pierheads and pontoons were constructed at Conwy in North Wales. They wer towed to Southampton for final fitting and completion.

 

On 6 June 1944 the Spud Pontoons and other parts of the Mulberry Harbour were taken across the Channel and within a few days they were fully operational.

The Mulberry Harbour project was a huge success. It provided Allied troops with a contant supply of equipment in the first few weeks after D-Day.

 

A lorry loaded with supplies rolling ashore down a floating roadway. Spud Pontoons can be seen in the background. This photograph was taken at Arromanches on 12 June 1944, six days after the D-Day landings.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum A624361

 

A view of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, Normandy. Painted in 1944 by War Artist Stephen Bailey.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum ART LD 004607

 

 

The manufacture, launching and testing of one of the Spud Pontoons at Cairnryan in 1944.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum H035941 & H036673

 

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Cairnryan Military Port 

In 1940 the country was at war. Southampton and Liverpool had been badly damaged in air raids and the search was on for new deep water ports beyond the range of enemy aircraft. Faslane, at the head of the Clyde, was chosen as Military Port Number 1. The tiny fishing village of Cairnryan on the banks of Loch Ryan became Military Port Number 2.

 

Work started in 1941. Two huge piers and a dockyard were built and a railway was constructed which connected the new port to the main line at Stranraer. Over 4,000 servicemen were employed building the railway ant port.

 

The port opened in July 1943. Over the next 12 months thousands of tons of military equipment and supplies were landed at Cairnryan. This was also the main port of entry for many American and Canadian troops arriving in Britain in the build-up to the invasion of Europe.

 

What is now the new Stena Line port facility was a wartime concrete production yard. This is where the massive concrete fittings for the new piers were produced.

 

A view of Cairnryan Military Port painted in 1943 by Official War Artist Charles Cundall.

 

Image: Stranraer Museum

 

The new North and South Deep Water Quays in 1944. To the right is the Cairnryan Military Railway and in the distance is the concrete production yard. The lighthouse was built in 1847.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum H04049

 

After the war the port was used for munitions dumping. Thousands of tons of explosives were stored here before being taken out to the North Channel and dumped.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum H042208

 

Looking across the concrete production yard in 1942. Some of the piles can be seen stacked alongside the railway and on the left are the buildings of the odl oyster farm. The cranes to the right are on the site of the new Stena Line terminal building.

 

By permission of the Imperial War Museum H0147198

 

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Loch Ryan Oysters

Loch Ryan has some fo the best oyster beds in Scotland. Where you are now stainding was once the site of a famous oyster farm.

 

Native or common oysters thrive in Loch Ryan's shallow, sheltered coasted waters. Oyster farming has a long history here. In 1701 King William III gave the rights to the loch's oyster beds to the Wallace family of Cairnryan and in the 1790s Loch Ryan was described as 'abounding with oysters of a most excellent flavour". Ancient shell middens - heaps of discarded oyster shells - found near Stranraer show that local oysters wer popular back in the Stone Age.

 

In the early 1900s a state-of-the-art oyster farm was built here. The Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Company constructed three massive concrete tanks. Connected to the loch by a pipe, they were flushed out and refilled with sea water at every tide. Oysters harvested from the loch wer kept in wire cages in the tanks and hosed with spring water in between tides. After 14 days the oysters were removed from the tanks and taken by lorry to the railway station at Stranraer. Loch Ryan oysters became a mush-have delicacy in many of Britain's finest restaurants.

 

Oysters were dredged from the loch using small fishing boats known locally as Nabbies.

(Image: Donnie Nelson)

 

The native oyster (Ostrea edulis). These oyster shells are from a prehistoric midden found at Stranraer. They are 8,000 years old. The Loch Ryan oyster beds are now a protected area but oyster farming is allowed under license.

Image: Stranraer Museum

 

The Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Co., Ld., Stranraer.

A special Control Valve admits pure sea water to each of these Tanks, no less than 450,000 gallons, or 2,057 tons of sea water entering and leaving the Tanks daily.

Loch Ryan Oyster Tanks

Interior View

 

The Loch Ryan Oyster Rishery Co., Ld., Stranraer.

The sea water entering these storage Tanks is direct from the Irish Channel, against whose purity there can be no manner of doubt. - Extract from Fishmongers' Co.'s (London) Inspector's Report.

Loch Ryan Oyster Tanks

View looking to Open Sea

 

The Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Co., Ld., Stranraer

These Tanks have been examined and approven by the Fishmongers  Co.(London); and the Oysters have beeen examined by thir bacteriological expert and declared entirely free from pollution. - Extract from Fish Trades Gazette.

Loch Ryan Oyster Tanks

As Seen from the Hill-side

 

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