The world is now nd Stranraer’s oyster
How nature and community ambition is transforming one of Scotland’s forgotten towns, writes Lorna Young
Promises were made to the people of Stranraer when the ferries left. After 150 years as the main ferry port to Northern Ireland, the economy and the infrastructure of the Galloway town had been shaped by the needs of passengers, cars and lorries. Each day a steady ebb and flow of people brought with them a need for food, fuel, entertainment and a bed for the night.
Then, in 2011, it all stopped.
“We couldn’t believe the magnitude of the impact when the boats left,” says Romano Petrucci, owner of Central Café and Chair of Stranraer Development Trust.
“Stranraer had everything and we took it for granted,” he says.
The £200m relocation of the ferry terminal from Stranraer to Cairnryan, six miles up the coast of Loch Ryan, made the route financially viable for the ferry companies but it gutted the local economy of Stranraer. It left behind a visible wound in the town’s scenic waterfront – a 29 acre pier that no longer served a purpose.
After a funding bid by the local authority to kickstart marine leisure regeneration failed, the Scottish Government promised £6 million. But nearly a decade on that money remains out of reach and unspent.
“Failed, despondent, endless promises, endless false horizons, we just got absolutely sick of it,” says Romano. “I remember sitting three yards from John Swinney in 2015 and I remember him promising we would see the £6m in 2017. We still don’t have it. It’s now worth about half of what it was worth when it was first promised, and we’re still waiting.
“I just couldn’t get my head round the audacity of it all, to leave this town in such a mess,” he adds. “It came to a head in 2016, the town was overgrown and visibly neglected. I figured about eight people working together could get it tidied up, so I put up a post on Facebook and asked folk to come and help. 144 people turned up. So many people cared about our town. I knew then our community could do anything we set our mind to.”
Driven by a determination to change the story of the town, the catalyst for Stranraer’s transformation came from a surprising source. Oysters.
“Native oysters are really important in marine ecosystems anyway, but the native oyster bed in Loch Ryan is completely unique, in fact it’s one of the most important oyster beds in Europe,” says
Tristan Hugh-jones, director of the Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Company.
Protected by Royal Charter since 1701, Loch Ryan’s oysters were spared the mass overfishing that cleared Scotland’s coastal areas of their oyster bounty. Managed by a two-person crew, Loch Ryan’s oyster boat focuses on conservation as much as it does on fishing, with only five per cent of each catch of oysters removed from the loch. The rest are returned to the water, replaced strategically to help grow the oyster bed, with a small quantity going to oyster bed restoration projects in other parts of the country.
As Stranraer’s community mobilised to take action, the last remaining native oyster fishery in Scotland combined with the tourism infrastructure of a former ferry port made the prospect of an oyster festival compelling.
“When you look back now it seems obvious,” Romano says, “but at the time no one really knew about the oysters, and the idea of an oyster festival, well… I remember comments from local folk saying oysters are elitist, and asking us ‘how are you going to make an oyster festival work for everybody?’ So, we made sure that we did.”
Taking place in mid-september, just two weeks after the start of the native oyster season, Stranraer Oyster Festival launched in 2017,