Cairnryan is a linear settlement, looking across the main
A77 road to
Loch Ryan. It was established in 1701, when Lochryan House was built for Lt. Colonel Andrew Agnew, 9th of Croach, (along with many of the houses, to the north of the village) for workers on the Lochryan Estate. A local slate quarry, next to Cairn Hill, which overlooks the village, provided the slates for the housing. The estate included a deer park and a bowling green. Lochryan House was re-modelled in the 1820s and is visible from the main road. Into the 1800s, Cairnryan was an important staging post on the coach route to
Ayr, with half a dozen inns along this short stretch of coast. It also achieved a less desirable reputation as a haunt of
highwaymen preying on that same passing traffic. For two hundred years Cairnryan had been noted for its deep water facility and during
World War II it became No.2 Military Port, with three harbour piers and a military railway, linking the village with nearby
Stranraer. To make room for the development of new railway tracks, the properties on the loch side of the village were demolished, reducing the local population as the occupiers were re-housed elsewhere. Of the three piers built, only one pier remains; one being dismantled and the other being destroyed (in an ammunition explosion) shortly after
World War II. The remaining pier is now in a state of considerable disrepair (but is still used by anglers). Another role, during World War II, was the building of some sections for the two
Mulberry Harbours, the floating ports on which the Allies depended after D-Day. Troops were based locally, in
military camps. At the end of the World War II, the
Atlantic U-boat fleet surrendered in Loch Ryan and was anchored in the port before being towed to the
North Channel and
scuttled, this activity was codenamed '
Operation Deadlight'. In the early 1950s, houses were built at Claddyburn Terrace at the South end of the village, which increased the village's population. For a period after the Second World War, (until at least 1958), the port was used to receive, by rail and by
Liberty and
Victory ships, surplus/time-expired
ammunition which was loaded onto
landing craft for dumping in deep water. Ammunition being transported by rail had their trucks labelled with the address, "Davy Jones' Locker, Cairnryan". Handling and disposal was carried out by 13 Company
Royal Pioneer Corps, based at the army camp (now a holiday campsite) behind the Loch Ryan Hotel. In 1957 and 1958, Cairnryan Lighterage Wharf and the port/jetty were again used in a joint Army/RAF operation called 'Operation Hardrock'. This operation was to build a rocket-tracking station on the remote island of
St Kilda, serving the South Uist Missile Range, from where the '
MGM-5 Corporal' missiles were launched. The civil engineering work, involving an accommodation block and a winding road to the island's highest point, where the rocket-tracking building was built, was carried out by the RAF's 5004 Airfield Construction Squadron. Personnel, plant and other equipment was transported between the pier, Cairnryan and St. Kilda, using RASC Landing Craft Tanks, operated by 76 Squadron RASC, based at Portsmouth. Military port activity ceased in the early 1960s, when the whole military infrastructure, such as the cranes and the railway line, were abandoned, then dismantled, apart from the pier and lighterage wharf themselves. In the late 1960s,
ship breaking became the main industry. The British
aircraft carriers
HMS Centaur,
HMS Bulwark,
HMS Eagle, and
HMS Ark Royal were all sent for breaking up, as well as a number of other vessels, including
HMS Mohawk and
HMS Blake. The trawler
Ross Revenge was awaiting scrapping in 1980, when the
Radio Caroline organisation bought the ship for their new offshore radio station. In July 1973,
Townsend Thoresen started a "roll on, roll off" ferry service, from the Lighterage Wharf in Cairnryan, to
Larne for passengers and cars, using the ship
Ionic Ferry. Later, the service was extended to commercial vehicles. In 1987, Townsend Thoresen was rebranded
P&O European Ferries after the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' disaster as
P&O had just taken over the parent company
European Ferries. In 2011, Stena Line transferred its car ferry operation from Stranraer Harbour to one at Old House Point, just north of Cairnryan, operating to the Belfast Port. ==Harbour==