Cairnryan
Cairnryan is a small village overlooking Loch Ryan and is notable today for its large modern ferry port.
Established in the early 18th-century, the village soon became an important staging post for coaches on the main road to Ayr from the south. Nowadays, most travellers passing through Cairnryan do so en route to or from Northern Ireland for which it has been an important gateway since the 1960s.
The village has a lengthy maritime history but the modern port dates from the Second World War when it was developed to build part of the famous Mulberry Harbours used on the Normandy beaches on D-Day.
