Overview of Wigtown

The royal burgh of Wigtown was the county town of Wigtownshire until 1975 and is situated on the west side of Wigtown Bay 7 miles (11 km) south of Newton Stewart. In 1998 it was launched as 'Wigtown Book Town' with numerous book stores and book-related businesses. It has subsequently elevated itself to 'Scotland's National Book Town'. Wigtown was a royal burgh by the late 13th Century (and a burgh of barony in 1341) with a castle nearby on the River Bladnoch. The town is known for its martyrs from the 17th century, including Margaret Lachlan, aged 62, and Margaret Wilson, aged 18, who were tied to a stake in Wigtown Bay and left to drown in the incoming tide. They and other Covenanters who were killed are commemorated in the Martyrs' Monument and by the Martyrs' Stake.

There are two market crosses (1738 and 1816), the remains of the pre 16th-century Old Parish Church and the fine French Gothic-style County Buildings (1863), which now contains a library (2003). Nearby is the stone circle of Torhousekie, the Wigtown Bay Local Nature Reserve ('Britain's largest'), the Museum (with a scale model of the town in the 18th century), the Galloway Forest Park with goat and deer enclosures, and the Bladnoch Distillery.