• 01671 404924
  • 07970 359557

Celebrating World Ocean Day

12 Jun 19
by Courtney Rowland
Celebrating World Ocean Day at Port Williams Harbour

To celebrate our river and oceans the GFT team joined other conservation organisations for a World Oceans Day extravaganza held in Port Williams harbour!

The GFT team were joined by lots of visitors on Saturday to support our oceans for an exciting day in Port William! The day was filled with activities and some very special aquatic guests including a European Eel (Anguilla Anguilla), Brown Trout (Salmo Trutta) and juvenile Lampreys (lampreys which haven’t developed eyes yet so were completely blind!).

There are over 40,000 known species of fish, nearly a quarter of which can only be found in freshwater environments such as rivers and lakes and few special species will travel between the two environments during their lifecycle! It’s important we work together to conserve all aquatic environments from our rivers to our seas to protect all organisms!

One of our important migratory species is the European Eel which can be found throughout the rivers of Galloway, but did you know that all European Eels are born in the Sargasso Sea? That’s roughly 8000km from our coasts! Eel larvae take approximately 300 days to drift to our shores using the Gulf stream, here they will spend up to 20 years maturing before making the impressive journey to the Sargasso Sea to spawn only once in their lifetime!

In Other News

Singing Session with Jim Bainbridge this weekend!

Join Jim Bainbridge and his wife Francie on Sunday 7th April at 2pm for an afternoon of songs from all genres and a chance for singers, accompanied or not to add to the welcoming musical tradition of The Vault Arts Centre!  

3 Apr 24
Charlie McAdam

Line-up for this year's SpringGrass Bluegrass Festival announced!

Over 17th-19th May 2024 we welcome the very best in UK & International bluegrass acts for the 3rd annual SpringGrass Bluegrass Festival at The Vault Arts Centre, Newton Stewart, and what a line-up it is this year featuring The Black Denims, Rain of Animals, Sarah-Jane Scouten and The Often Herd!  

22 Mar 24
Nathon Jones

Trust switching to Ticketsource

If you're booking tickets online you may have noticed that we're using a new system, Ticketsource, for some events as we seek to reduce costs and make the customer experience the best it can be, as well as giving us a bunch of new features and tools to help us deliver even better events.  

22 Mar 24
Nathon Jones

More Trad News

Trad Music Trust

The 10th annual Newton Stewart & Minnigaff Traditional Music & Dance Festival takes place over the 12th-14th July 2024. It's an incredible achievement. The charity has created a viable, sustainable, event that continues to grow and develop, proudly celebrating the very best in traditional Scottish, Irish and World music. Make sure you book early for what is shaping up to be the biggest event yet!

Subscribe to Newsletter

* indicates required
Sponsored by:
  • The National Piping Centre Logo
  • McCallum Bagpipes Logo
  • Penninghame Estate
  • Merrick Real Estate
Commercial Sponsors:
  • Five Kingdoms Brewery Logo
  • Crafty Distillery Logo
  • WEST Brewery Logo
Funded by:
  • Dumfries & Galloway Council Logo
  • The Holywood Trust Logo