Author : Bill Gill
ISBN : 9780853617624
Cover : paperback
Price : £11.95

The Cairnryan Military Railway was built during the Second World War to link existing lines to the new military port at Cairnryan, on Loch Ryan. Following the Dunkirk evacuation there was an urgent need to have ports outwith bomber range. Various locations were considered. Cairnryan military port and the railway to serve it were built entirely by servicemen to avoid the industrial relations issues that had occurred on Red Clydeside during the First World War. Hence the seven miles long railway was constructed by Royal Engineers with assistance from the Pioneer Corps. After the war the port found a new role as the starting point for unused munitions to be dumped at sea, but by the end of the 1950s military use had ceased and the rails were lifted in 1967 in the space of a few weeks. Since then the port has been redeveloped, but the line of the railway can still be traced and various remains seen. This is a reformatted new edition of the book originally published by Stranraer and District Local History Trust in 1999 with some new illustrations.