Port Logan is a crescent of cottages round a sandy bay on the Irish Sea side of the Rhins, fourteen miles south of Stranraer and a mile from Logan Botanic Garden. It is one of those places that looks like a film set, and has in fact been used as one.
The fish pond
The oddity, and the reason to stop. In the 1800s the Laird of Logan had a tidal pond blasted out of the rock at the north end of the bay, to keep live cod and other fish fresh for the table — a larder rather than an aquarium, in the days before refrigeration. Sea water flows in and out through a channel, and the fish were fed by hand and became tame enough to come when called.
It survives, complete with its keeper's cottage, and fish still live in it. Opening is seasonal and limited, so check before making a special trip.
The bay
A sandy, sheltered beach, a small stone harbour with a pier, and almost nobody on either. It faces west across the North Channel, so the sunsets are good and Ireland is on the horizon on a clear evening.
There is a village hall and, seasonally, somewhere to get a coffee — but this is a very small place and you should not count on finding food. Portpatrick is the nearest reliable option, about twenty minutes north.
Combining it
Port Logan sits neatly between Logan Botanic Garden a mile north — where tree ferns and palms grow outdoors in the Gulf Stream air — and the Mull of Galloway, Scotland's southern tip, twenty minutes south. All three belong on the same day; see the Stranraer and the Rhins day trip.
It is about an hour and a half from Girvan, so this is a full-day destination rather than an afternoon.
