North West Central School, a K to 12 school, services the surrounding communities of Kelfield, Ruthilda, and Stranraer and provides high school services for the community of Dodsland.
The town takes its name from its location near the mouth of the river called the Water of Fleet which empties into Wigtown Bay at Fleet Bay, and its former role as the ’’Gait House’’ or "the House on the Road on the River Fleet" or toll booth of the late 18th century stagecoach route from Dumfries to Stranraer, now the A75 road.
In March 2011, Stena Line announced the Stena Voyager and her running partners on the Belfast – Stranraer route (Stena Caledonia and Stena Navigator) were to be replaced in Autumn 2011 by the Stena Superfast VII and Stena Superfast VIII chartered from Estonian ferry operator Tallink.
The loch was used by Winston Churchill when he departed from Stranraer in a Boeing Flying boat on 25 June 1942 when making his second visit of the war to the USA.
As part of Robert de Brus's 1307 expedition into Annandale and Galloway, led by Alexander de Brus and Thomas de Brus, an Irish sub king, Sir Reginald de Crawford and Malcolm, consisting of 1000 men and eighteen galleys they sailed into Loch Ryan and landed near Stranraer.
In March 2011, Stena Line announced the Stena Caledonia and her running partners on the Belfast - Stranraer route (Stena Navigator and Stena Voyager) were to be replaced in Autumn 2011 by the Stena Superfast VII and Stena Superfast VIII chartered from Estonian ferry operator Tallink.
The A75 road runs along the southern edge of the town, and connects the town to Stranraer in the west and Dumfries in the east and forms part of the international E-road, European route E18 from Northern Ireland to Russia.
Its headquarters then transferred to Stranraer, with its squadrons flying from bases in Northern Ireland and western Scotland, to provide support and convoy escorts in the Western Approaches.
He spent a year as player-coach in New Zealand with Bobby Gould at Hawksbay United before returning to Scotland with Stranraer in 2007.
Having first pursued a career as a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, Robert William's interest in journalism was recognised by his Whig friend and patron the Earl of Stair, who in 1954 made him Editor of the Wigtownshire Free Press, the headquarters of which was based in Stranraer, to which the family moved from Edinburgh, remaining there until 1860.
In 1963, shortly before the station's closure, an entire Tetbury farm – complete with machinery, foodstuffs, staff and pedigree herd of Hereford cattle – was transported from the station to Stranraer in 31 carriages.
Built for the North Channel route from Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, to Larne, County Antrim, linking the west of Scotland with Northern Ireland, she was the first car ferry on the route.