Stranraer - Definition and Overview

Stranraer 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.

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.