Stranraer F.C.

Stranraer Football Club is a Scottish semi-professional football club based in the town of Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway. The club was founded in 1870, making it the third oldest football club in Scotland behind Queen's Park and Kilmarnock. The club currently competes in the Scottish League One as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. They also won the Scottish Second Division on two occasions, most recently in 1997–98 as well as coming runners-up in 2004–05 and 2014–15. Its only ever national cup final came in 1996, when the club defeated First Division champions St Johnstone 1–0 in the Scottish Challenge Cup final.

Stranraer's home ground is Stair Park, which has the capacity to seat around 1,830 spectators and 6,250 plus standing. The ground was opened in 1907 and is located in the east of Stranraer. The club is currently managed by Brian Reid.

History

They were founded in 1870 and play their football at Stair Park. All of Stranraer's football was played under Southern Counties auspices until, in 1949, the club was admitted to C Division where they came up against the reserve sides of the established league clubs. In 1955 C Division was abolished and the Blues found themselves in B Division and playing first team league football. They would remain in the bottom tier until their first-ever promotion eventually arrived under Alex McAnespie in 1993–94.

Stranraer

Coordinates: 54°54′07″N 5°01′37″W / 54.902°N 5.027°W / 54.902; -5.027

Stranraer (UK: /stranˈrɑ:/stran-RAR; Scottish Gaelic: An t-Sròn Reamhar, pronounced [ənˠ̪ t̪ʰɾɔːn ɾãũ.əɾ]) is a town in Inch, Wigtownshire, in the west of Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. It lies on the shores of Loch Ryan, on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries and Galloway's second-largest town, with a population including the surrounding area of nearly 13,000.

Stranraer is an administrative centre for the West Galloway Wigtownshire area of Dumfries and Galloway. It is best known as having been a ferry port connecting Scotland with Belfast (and previously with Larne) in Northern Ireland; the last service was transferred to Cairnryan in November 2011. The main industries in the area are the ferry port, with associated industries, tourism and, more traditionally, farming.

The name is generally believed to come from the Scottish Gaelic An t-Sròn Reamhar meaning "The Fat Nose", but which more prosaically might be rendered as "the broad headland". Another interpretation would link the second element in the name with Rerigonium, an ancient settlement noted by Ptolemy in this part of Britain. A person from Stranraer is a Stranraerarian; someone from the original, lochside, part of the town, including Sheuchan Street and Agnew Crescent – the Clayhole or, in local dialect, Cl'yhole – is a Clayholer /kleɪˈhoʊlər/.

Stranraer (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Stranraer in Wigtownshire was a royal burgh that returned one commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland and to the Convention of Estates.

After the Acts of Union 1707, Stranraer, New Galloway, Whithorn and Wigtown formed the Wigtown district of burghs, returning one member between them to the House of Commons of Great Britain.

See also