Days 8 and 9. We are happily ensconced here at Stranraer at the very far end of Loch Ryan and this will be our jumping off point for Ireland tomorrow, Monday 10th June 2019. It is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. It was once sustained by the various ferry services to Ireland, but two new terminals were built, about 10 years ago, further up the Loch (see previous blog) so the town has suffered. There is a very grand Victorian hotel in the centre which is sadly derelict now, a reminder of the changing fortunes of this town. However there are good harbour facilities here which have been newly built and comprise showers, laundry, kitchen and meeting room as well as housing the coastguard. There is a fair range of shops, pubs and cafes and a swimming pool ( sampled this afternoon by me) and cinema. They have a great local initiative going on here of growing vegetables around town. Well done Stranraer!
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What a fabulous idea!
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There is a boat building workshop next to the harbour buildings where traditional skiffs are still hand made today. There was one going out on Saturday morning and one in the shed, so we had a chat to the people involved who told us the history of the skiff. It was originally built and designed in the Orkney's as a small whaling boat that could be launched off a bigger ship when the whale was sighted. They are only small, oar powered craft so we were marvelling at how they were used and how they coped with the heavy seas around the Orkney's.
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One of the two local skiffs and oarsman.
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They have no rowlocks but instead a flat board with a hole that is placed over a peg on the gunwale to secure the oar. Ordinary rowlocks broke with the power of the sea on the oar. The oar blade itself is very small and narrow because the bigger ordinary blade, if caught by a large wave, would knock the oarsman over as the wave would be too powerful to row against.
Stranraer is famous for hand making these little skiffs and the World Skiff Championship is being held here this summer. Thousands of people from all over the world arrive in the town and skiffs compete here from places as far away as Australia and New Zealand. I wish we could still be here to see it.
Despite being sheltered it can experience ferocious weather as seen on this sign at the harbour.
On Saturday afternoon we took the bus to Port Patrick, a very picturesque little harbour where the ferry used to go from in Victorian times. It borders the Irish Sea and Ireland can be very clearly seen across the water on the horizon. It is a picture postcard harbour but can be dangerous in high seas as there is little protection. There is a local R.N.L.I. lifeboat stationed here which was nearly lost while in this harbour in a storm in 2014, sadly with one loss of life. The tidal range is 3 meters so if we had come here we would have had to have long lines out and climbed up a vertical wall ladder to leave the harbour, so I feel much happier where we are even though it adds about 10 miles to our trip to Ireland. The yacht mooring is on the wall opposite the fishing boats, below the cottages in this picture. The entrance to the harbour is on the right by the flag on top of the rock and looks straight out across the Irish sea to Northern Ireland.
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| Pretty Port Patrick - but looks can be deceptive. Not a good place to be in a storm. |
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