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A stone tower keep with battlements rises behind a public drinking fountain in a paved square, people sitting on benches nearby.
Dumfries and Galloway

Castle of St John

A tower house in the middle of Stranraer that has been nearly everything.

Welcome

The Castle of St John stands in a square in the middle of Stranraer, which is an odd place to find a tower house, and it has spent five hundred years being whatever the town needed.

The Adairs of Kilhilt built it around 1510 as a fortified house. After that it was a court, a police station, and a garrison during the Killing Times of the 1680s, when Covenanters were held and tried here. The Victorians turned it into a prison, adding cells and an exercise yard on the roof, and in the Second World War it served as an air raid precautions base. It was refurbished in the late 1980s and is now a small museum telling all of that, with the cells left as they were. It costs nothing to go in.

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The Daily for 30 October, from Scotland with love. Aerial view of a teal-coloured lochan cupped in a forested hollow, a scree slope rising on one side and autumn-tinged pines ringing the shore.
Before you go
How long
Three quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter
Cost
Free
Getting there
In the centre of Stranraer; park in the town car parks.

Opening hours

Their website
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
10am–4.30pm
Wednesday
10am–4.30pm
Thursday
10am–4.30pm
Friday
10am–4.30pm
Saturday
10am–4.30pm
Sunday
Closed

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Did you know

A stone tower keep with battlements rises behind a public drinking fountain in a paved square, people sitting on benches nearby.
Did you know

Built by the Adairs.

The Adairs of Kilhilt, a family who had come over from Ireland, raised it as an L-plan tower house around 1510.

An ornate cast-iron drinking fountain inscribed "Erected by the town council in commemoration of Queen Victoria's record reign, 1897" stands in a paved square.
Did you know

A prison on the roof.

The Victorians turned it into a gaol, putting cells inside and an exercise yard on top of the tower, and the cells are still there to walk into.

A stone tower keep with battlements stands behind a lawn scattered with carved stone artefacts.
Did you know

Free to go in.

It was refurbished in the late 1980s and reopened as a museum, and there is no charge.

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Where it is

In the town square at the centre of Stranraer.

Close byThe rest of Dumfries and Galloway, near at hand.
  1. Stranraer MuseumStranraer MuseumThe museum of Wigtownshire in Stranraer's Old Town Hall of 1776, free to visit, with refurbished displays and children's trails.Under a mile 1 min by road
  2. Fig and OliveFig and OliveA bright cafe on George Street in Stranraer, with brunch, hot dishes, fresh cakes and a welcome for dogs and children.Under a mile 1 min by road
  3. The boating lake at Agnew Park under a blue sky, a little island of palm trees on the right and green hills across the water beyond.Agnew ParkStranraer's lochside park, with a boating lake, a playground and a café.Under a mile as the crow flies
  4. The canal at Castle Kennedy Gardens in summer, lined with cordylines, with flowering trees in red on the bank and a path alongside.Castle Kennedy GardensEighteenth-century gardens round the ruin of Castle Kennedy, on the neck of land between two lochs east of Stranraer.3 miles as the crow flies
  5. The boardwalk at Aldouran Wetland Garden running out over the reedy pond towards the wooden bird hide among the trees.Aldouran Wetland Garden and GlenA community wetland garden and bird hide on the edge of Leswalt, joined to an ancient wood with a sculpture trail.3 miles as the crow flies
  6. The Agnew Monument, a square castellated stone tower, on the green top of the Tor of Craigoch under a deep blue sky, a walker climbing through the long summer grass towards it.Agnew MonumentA Victorian tower on an Iron Age hillfort above Leswalt, looking out over Loch Ryan.4 miles as the crow flies
Directions
The Crown Hotel's white frontage on North Crescent in Portpatrick, its name over the door, window boxes of flowers and picnic tables out front under furled blue umbrellas.RestaurantsThe Crown Hotel, Portpatrick5.6 miles
The restaurant at The Waterfront in Portpatrick, its tables laid under a pine-boarded ceiling with roof lights, and windows on the far wall.RestaurantsThe Waterfront, Portpatrick5.6 miles
Glenwhan Botanic Garden from the top of the slope: flowering shrubs and rhododendrons round the lochans, with Luce Bay and the Mull of Galloway on the horizon.AttractionsGlenwhan Botanic Garden5.8 miles
Knockinaam Lodge from the air, a grey stone country house in green lawns above its private cove and pebble beach, with cliffs and the Irish Sea beyond.RestaurantsKnockinaam Lodge5.9 miles
Small wooden hut atop layered coastal cliffs above the seaAttractionsRhins of Galloway6.1 miles
The sandy beach at Lady Bay with small waves breaking, Loch Ryan beyond and the hills of its far shore under a deep blue sky, a wooded headland on the left.AttractionsLady Bay7.1 miles
Kirkmadrine's small stone church on its rise among the fields, the red sandstone porch at its west end where the early Christian stones stand behind glass, old gravestones in the grass beside it.AttractionsKirkmadrine Stones7.8 miles
A harbour village of colourful houses lines a shingle beach, wooded hills rising behind under an overcast sky.AttractionsPortpatrick7.9 miles
Blue-trimmed shopfront reading "The Port Pantry, Coffee Shop, Eatery, Deli" with lifebuoys in the windowsCafeThe Port Pantry, Portpatrick7.9 miles

Recommend to a friend

Stay nearby

Places to stay near the castle, and when each is next free.

Rose Blair Lodge in the sun, a gabled cottage with a wooden door in a porch, trees behind and a table on the terrace.Rose Blair Lodge
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Portpatrick
  • 5 miles from the castle
Free 8–11 NovHeritage Coachman Lodge's pale blue door in the cobbled stable courtyard, a table and a wooden bench in the sun outside.Heritage Coachman Lodge
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Portpatrick
  • 5 miles from the castle
Check datesFern Forest House, a grey stone house with ivy on its gable and a pale blue door, under a blue sky.Fern Forest House
  • Sleeps 6
  • In Portpatrick
  • 5 miles from the castle
Check datesFawn's Velvet Lodge in the sun, a stone cottage with a pale blue door, daisies on the lawn in front.Fawn's Velvet Lodge
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Portpatrick
  • 5 miles from the castle
Free 27–30 DecPlaces to stayEvery stay in Dumfries and GallowayAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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