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Stranraer is a town in the south of Scotland in the west of the region of Dumfries and Galloway and was formerly in the county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of Loch Ryan on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic "An t-Sròn Reamhar" meaning literally "The Fat Nose", but which more poetically might be rendered as "the broad headland". It is one of the administrative centres of the region, but best known as a ferry port connecting Scotland with Belfast and Larne in Northern Ireland. In 2003 Stena Line announced plans to transfer its operations to a new port at Old House Point, north of Cairnryan. Later Stena and P&O announced an agreement to share Cairnryan port. The move north is part of an effort to shorten the journey time of the Stena HSS service (High-speed Sea Service) and increase sailings from four to five per day. The HSS, a high-speed catamaran, is obliged to slow considerably when in Loch Ryan and Belfast Lough due to the large wake which it produces at higher speeds. The sailing time from Cairnryan to Stranraer is approximately ten minutes, thus twenty minutes could be saved per sailing.

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