Overview of Isle of Whithorn

A seaside village in The Machars district of Dumfries and Galloway, the Isle of Whithorn lies at the head of a small inlet of Wigtown Bay, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Whithorn. It claims to be the southernmost village in Scotland. The 13th-century St Ninian's Chapel is most likely a successor to the Candida Casa (White House) established in the late 4th Century AD by St Ninian whose remains were removed from here to Whithorn when the church of the monastery was built there. Excavations have revealed a later Norse settlement here. Situated on a peninsula before land's end at Burrow Head, the Isle of Whithorn was indeed once an island connected to the mainland by a causeway but improvements to village and harbour in the late 18th century saw it permanently connected. The 16th Century Isle of Whithorn Castle lies within the village.