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Portrodie to London Road



Turning right from Harbour Street we come to Portrodie, a name redolent of maritime connections but now left firmly landlocked by the reclamation of the harbour area for marshalling and terminal purposes.

North West Castle, built in 1820 by the famous Arctic explorer Sir John Ross as his private home, has been much added to with its conversion into a top-class hotel. Worth noting is its castellated entrance turrets, matched a few yards away with what was a similar entrance to Sir John's boathouse. Immediately opposite the latter was a private slipway pointing towards a little breakwater mooring point Sir John had constructed but both disappeared years ago with the build-up of the ferry facilities.

Beyond today's hotel is the Garden of Friendship, the official name for a colourful corner which was created in the early 1920s to make use of waste ground. Its name perpetuated its origins in that "friends" of the community gave flowers and shrubs to help the town council beautify the area but it quickly became 'the Rock Gardens" to the people and this easier title still persists.

Through the gardens and going south towards London Road we are passing through the former lands of West Ballgreen Farm, later to become Ballgreen Park, one of the earliest public parks within the Burgh.

Turning right at London Road we find on the corner of Lochryan Street and the main road a peculiar layout of stepped-back houses. These were partly belonging to the former Stranraer Distillery which closed its doors in the 1850s and the layout shows their prior existence to the planning of Lochryan Street.

Across from them and St. Andrew's Church, on the site now occupied by a supermarket, there was at one time a weaving factory known as McCulloch's. The names of McCulloch Place and Brickfield Road (the original name for Lochryan Street) disappeared with the passing years though curiously enough Brickfield now exists in another part of Stranraer, though referring to a different brickworks.

Where next? 

The Strand l Portrodie to London Road l Hanover Street and Hanover Square l Church Street into George Street l The Sea Front