Working in collaboration with The Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) and Dumfries and Galloway Council, Stranraer Development Trust will be delivering a heritage project based at the Clock Tower. This project is being designed and delivered by STUCO Design and will showcase the history of the Weighbridge in a interactive space that will include visual and audio content.
This project is now completed and we expect it to be open to the public in November 2023.
Big thanks to Tesco Bags of Help and or course to the Stranraer Tesco shoppers who voted for us. We have been awarded £5,000 for our project More Stranraer in Bloom.
We'll be putting new planters along the seafront by the breastwork car park ready for summer. We are looking for green fingered volunteers to help us look after the these planters and the ones in town. If you have spare time and green fingers please make contact with us. stranraerdevelopmenttrust@gmail.com
#bagsofhelp @tesco-scotland
The Gateway to Galloway Visitor Centre and Community Hub opened on 2nd July 2021.
The centre is a place for tourists to come for information on what's going on in and around Stranraer, places to visit, stay, eat and drink. With a wide variety of local art and crafts for sale.
The centre also acts as a community hub, offering exhibition space for community groups and artists based in Stranraer, with access to free WIFI.
For more information please visit our sister site, by clicking on the link at the top of the page.
In June earlier this year we organised our second weed and clean of the town centre. We know that due to cuts in funding the Council resources are limited but the people of Stranraer were not prepared to sit back and see their town disappear under weeds throughout the summer. Around 140 people turned out to help including groups from Apex, Stranraer Girl Guides and Stranraer Police Cadets. The Council organised with us to remove over 140 bags of collected rubbish. The town looked fabulous. Our chairman, Romano Petrucci even donated free drinks and chips to those helping.
Earlier this year we were successful in receiving £10,000 from the Tesco Bags of Help scheme to purchase specially designed “self watering” planters for the town centre.
The funds also paid for compost and plants to create a range of floral enhancements around the town. Members of the Board and volunteers from Apex in Stranraer have kept the planters watered and maintained. What a difference they have made to the town. A big thanks to Tesco and to the Tesco customers who voted for our project. We will continue to maintain the planters and will be planting spring bulbs once the summer bedding has finished. We plan to look for further funding to purchase more planters for next year.
Our celebration of Scotland’s wild, native oysters is back for its third year and our programme is guaranteed to be bursting with fun, festivities and flavour! Marking the start of the native oyster harvesting season, Stranraer Development Trust is bringing top chefs, inspiring speakers, amazing entertainers and some of the world’s leading oyster experts together for Stranraer Oyster Festival, a seafood celebration on the shores of Loch Ryan.
Nestling under the sparkling waters of Loch Ryan is one of the last wild, native oyster beds in Scotland, fished sustainably by Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Co. Ltd. The area’s unique seafood heritage, the local cuisine, the stunning scenery and the vision of the Stranraer business community, collectively inspired the first oyster festival held in Stranraer in September 2017.
We wanted to devise a festival that involved and inspired our whole town, while creating a late summer tourism highlight to attract and welcome visitors to Stranraer. Food tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism sectors in the UK and our stunning coastal location, combined with our bountiful local seafood, inspiring chefs and of course our native oysters, meant a seafood festival was the natural choice.
Stranraer is dramatically situated on the sweeping shoreline at the head of Loch Ryan. There could be no more perfect backdrop to an oyster festival than the beautiful view from the festival’s harbour location with its popular marina and then out across the loch to distant Ailsa Craig, and beyond to the Irish Sea.
The first Stranraer Oyster Festival in 2017 was a phenomenal success. More than 10,000 visitors enjoyed our packed programme which featured a host of foodie events, performances and workshops. Celebrity chef demos, competitions, a plethora of children’s and youth projects that took place before during and after festival weekend, live music and a bustling festival market crammed with traders, some selling their excellent locally produced food and drink, others their stylish arts and craftwork resulting in a truly terrific weekend.
In 2018, we expanded and delivered a rich and varied programme enjoyed by 14,000 visitors over the 3-day event. Highlights include entertaining fishing demonstrations from celebrity chef Nick Nairn, the hilarious first ever Stranraer Oyster Eating competition, plenty of free activities for the kids, and the introduction of a Seafood Celebration Marquee packed full of live music, tasty dishes provided by local chefs and thousands of fresh Loch Ryan Oysters. 125 local businesses engaged, 90 youths dedicated their time and energy to volunteer and over £1M was generated for the local economy.
Stranraer Oyster Festival also hosts the Scottish Oyster Shucking Championship competition, which attracts chefs from all over Scotland to compete against the clock to be the fastest oyster shucker in the country! Sponsored by Seafood Scotland, this is an energetic, risky and hilarious competition not to be missed.
There’s so much to see, do and enjoy at Stranraer Oyster Festival, we hope you will join us in 2022!
Stay Informed
Do keep checking the Festival on our sister website: www.stranraeroysterfestival.com and our Festival Facebook page for regular updates on festival related matters.
And please don’t forget to ‘like’ and ‘share’ the posts and photographs on our Stranraer Oyster Festival Facebook page We do appreciate that!
A big thank you to all our funders and sponsors for making this happen.
Stranraer Resilience Fund
Are you a Stranraer community organisation working with people in hardship?
The Stranraer Resilience Fund is a small grants fund for projects to alleviate the effects of welfare reform in disadvantaged communities in Stranraer. Local community organisations can apply for a grant of between £500 and £2,000. The process is simple and quick.
How does it work?
Applying for funding is simple and we’ll get back to you quickly. Successful applicants will receive the funds up front - the reporting requirements are straightforward and simple.
To apply, please return your completed application form to info@stranraerdevelopmenttrust.co.uk by email or post. You will hear back from us telling you whether your application is successful.
Please note that a condition of the award will be submission of a short end of project report. Acknowledgement of the financial support from Stranraer Resilience Fund must be given in any publicity.
Who can apply?
Local community groups and organisations based in and working in Stranraer.
Applications will only be accepted from constituted, non-profit distributing organisations.
We will need to see a copy of your constitution and receive details of your bank account and confirmation of at least two unrelated signatories.
We’re looking for applications from grassroots organisations which are community-led and work in low-income neighbourhoods. Priority will be given to organisations with an annual income of less than £50,000.
What can I apply for?
Your project must alleviate the effects of welfare reform in disadvantage communities in Stranraer. Projects must have a focus on one or more of these specific themes:
Financial awareness
Young people in need
Support for vulnerable groups
Eating healthy on a budget
Care for carers
Who is behind this?
The Stranraer Resilience Fund is supported by the Scottish Government via Development Trust Association Scotland.
If you would like a Word version of the form please request by email to info@stranraerdevelopmenttrust.co.uk
We would like to express our thanks to the Scottish Government and DTAS (Development Trust Association Scotland) for their support with this project.
We love this time of year. This is when the importance of maintaining what we have achieved is never more relevant. We are so grateful to Michael and his staff at Soleburn who look after the vast majority of our planters and have them primed to look sensational for mid-summer into autumn. We all agree how important this is to the visual opinion locals and visitors have and get of our Town.
Thanks to all of those who help, including Norval Dampney and her team at Credible Edibles and Grant from Andreas who look after the planters the Trust entrust them with.
We hope you like and appreciate their work.
