Located in the Galloway hills of south-western Scotland is a small town with a rich history known as Wigtown. In more modern times since 1998, Wigtown has taken the title of Scotland's book town, and a book festival is held in the town each year. The designation as a book town started because of the lack of income in the town due to the local businesses (a distillery and creamery) closing, although the distillery is now in operation again. Wigtown now has a couple of distilleries nearby: Bladnoch Distillery and Crafty Distillery. There is also some sad history in the town in the medieval time relating to the Martyr's Stake.
The square in the town was improved and laid out in the original georgian style and also with bowling green, which I witnessed in use with a crowd of people on the Thursday night.
The courthouse off of the square is a very large building and the most recognisable and largest. It reminded me of an American courthouse or church.
There are about twenty book stores in the town, and I browsed quite a few of them and purchased some books.
There are one or two coffee shops in town and a fish and chips and pub. The fish and chips and pub were both closed, so there wasn't any place to get an evening meal locally during my visit, but I visited while Scotland was still under more extreme lockdown measures than England.
There was a little house on the main street that had a large collection of flowers, garden decorations, and novelty planters.
Overall, it is a very quiet little town - at least when the book fair is not on.
Hopefully I can return back to Wigtown for the book fair some day.
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