This year’s annual Book Festival in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town, is coming to a close. Running from 22 September to 1 October, the festival has seen an impressive collection of some 200 events in ten days, including talks from guest authors, readings from new young writers, as well as film, art and theatre-based activities, at free or affordable entry prices ranging from £3 to £15. This year’s line-up included some of the most well-known names in the literature world, with appearances from Kate Mosse, Michael Morpurgo, Maggie O’Farrell, Fergal Keane and Ambrose Parry.
Wigtown, a quaint little town in Dumfries and Galloway, hosted its first Book Festival back in 1999 after gaining the title of National Book Town in 1998. Since then, it has rapidly expanded, boasting of previous speakers such as Ian Rankin, Clare Balding and Joanna Lumley.
Before acquiring its connection to literature, Wigtown was a port and centre of trading. It became a royal burgh in 1292 and after its urban development in the 1700s, Wigtown was a busy service centre for markets and farming communities. The town’s most famous historical association is with the Wigtown Martyrs. Margaret MacLachlan and Margaret Wilson were tied to the stake and then drowned as Scottish Covenanters in 1685. Their graves still lie in the Wigtown Cemetery and a memorial monument was erected in 1858 on Windy Hill. The town saw an economic decline in the late twentieth century with the closing of the local distillery and creamery, the two main sources of development. The bestowed title of Scotland’s National Book Town was an effort to regenerate the community, and a successful one at that. Wigtown has now grown to include about 15 bookshops and a reopened distillery. It regularly attracts tourists thanks to events such as the Book Festival.
The initial concept of a book town is most frequently credited to Hay-on-Wye in Wales. According to its website, the International Organisation of Book Towns aims to stimulate tourism, strengthen the rural economy and raise awareness of local heritage. Other book towns can be found across Europe such as Redu in Belgium and Montereggio in Italy. Much like Hay-on-Wye, which also holds its annual Hay Festival, Wigtown is known for its selection of second-hand bookshops. The Bookshop, its largest and indeed Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop, is home to a collection of 100,000 books, and it inspired the bestselling novel Diary of a Bookseller, written by the owner Shaun Bythell.
The most unique shopping experience can be found in The Open Book. This second-hand book shop is also an Airbnb, allowing guests to play shop while they stay in the private apartment upstairs. Guests become booksellers for the duration of their stay and are allowed to change window displays and pricing, designing their own customer experience. If you’re anything like me and this sounds like your ideal holiday, a word of warning – there is an extremely long waiting list, so plan a few years in advance!
Wigtown is now a different town to what it was 20 years ago, with The Guardian including it on its list of Britain’s ten best high streets in 2022. Offering mentoring and career development schemes for young adults, book tours to local schools and support to new writers, Wigtown has transformed into a thriving cultural hub.
“Wigtown Sign” by Dark Dwarf is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0