Tour Scotland Video Old Photographs Of Stranraer

Tour Scotland video of old photography of Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Around 1600, Stranraer had become the market town for western Wigtownshire. At about this time, Stranraer was reached by a military road built from Dumfries to allow easier access to Portpatrick for transportation of people to Ireland for the Plantation of Ulster. Stranraer became a royal burgh in 1617. The first harbour in Stranraer was built in the middle of the 18th century, with further port development in the 1820s. The arrival of the railway from Dumfries in 1861, which closed in 1965), which gave the shortest journey to/from London, England, established Stranraer as the area's main port. In 1862, the line was extended to serve the harbour directly, and a link to Portpatrick was also opened. In 1877, a rail connection north to Girvan and Glasgow was also established. Stranraer remained the main Scottish port for the Irish ferries for the next 150 years or so. John Rennie was born in 1842 Stranraer and became an apprentice shipwright on the Clyde at Govan but, determined to better himself, studied naval architecture in the evening. He worked in Dumbarton and Renfrew, before gaining the position of Chief Draughtsman with Scott & Linton at Dumbarton, where he worked on the clipper Cutty Sark under Hercules Linton. He was then appointed Naval Constructor and Instructor for the Chinese Government, working in Shanghai, a position he occupied for eight years. On returning to Scotland, he worked with the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company and then, for 19 years, with John Fullarton & Company at Paisley. During his career Rennie also designed various instruments used in shipbuilding. He died at Leith, Edinburgh in 1918.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.