Stranraer Golf Club

Stranraer Golf Club has the specific distinction of being James Braid's final course design. Braid died in November 1950; the Stranraer layout was among the last projects he completed. The course was built and opened in 1953, three years after his death, and the membership placed a plaque to him in the clubhouse where it remains. Braid designed or substantially revised over 200 courses during his career — Gleneagles, Carnoustie, Southerness, Brora, among others — and Stranraer is the one that closes the list.

The course sits on the western shore of Loch Ryan, looking east across the water towards the Rhinns of Galloway. Par is 70 across 6,300 yards. The routing is characteristic Braid late-career work: fairways generous enough to reward a player who is on the course for the first time, greens small enough to demand precision on approach, and the wind off the loch supplying the variable that makes the same hole play differently on consecutive days. The back nine has the better sea views; the 15th and 17th are the holes that appear in photographs.

Stranraer town has historically been the port for the Stranraer-Belfast ferry (now operated from Cairnryan, two miles north) which means the town has a steady flow of Irish visitors who know how to find it. For players crossing to Northern Ireland or coming the other way, the club is close enough to Cairnryan to allow a round before or after the ferry. For visitors making a Galloway golf circuit, Stranraer pairs with Portpatrick Dunskey (15 minutes south along the coast) for a two-course day at the far south-western tip of Scotland.

Visitor fees of £45–£55. The clubhouse is friendly and the welcome reflects a club confident in its own place in the game's history, without making excessive claims about it.