If you follow my photography you will know that I live on the beautiful North Rhins of Galloway overlooking Loch Ryan .
Our nearest town is Stranraer, until 2011 for about 150 years this was the key port for transit to Northern Ireland. Although it is steeped in history and the Castle of St John in the centre of the town is testimony to that Stranraer's heyday was Victorian in nature.
Then the Port moved within visual distance to Cairnryan but critically the road traffic to the port bypassed Stranraer . The economic decline of the Town began .
Not this year but it still is visited by holiday makers and the development of the Oyster Festival held every September has seen some interest in the Town and last year we had the exceptionally well attended World Skiff rowing Championships. The future is around the unique Loch with its incredible view of the granite island of Ailsa Craig and the development of a small marina speaks to that . But the Town is filled with eyesores, symbols of neglect and decay that seem to attract more of the same . The formerly iconic George Hotel is the key element of this occupying the prime position in town and quite literally falling down .
As anyone who follows its football club will tell you, Stranraer people need to be resilient and they are .
I hope that the images I will be presenting here over the next few days will be an essay on the past but a siren call to a new and more optimistic future .
Tags: Architecture
History
Decay
Stranraer
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