![Wigtown main street - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Wigtown_main_street_-_geograph.org.uk_-_212442.jpg)
Wigtown ( (both used locally); gd, Baile na h-Ùige) is a town and former
royal burgh
A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs.
Most royal burghs were either created by ...
in
Wigtownshire
Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...
, of which it is the county town, within the
Dumfries and Galloway region in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. It lies east of
Stranraer and south of
Newton Stewart
Newton Stewart ( Gd: ''Baile Ùr nan Stiùbhartach'') is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland.
The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to the west of the river, and ...
. It is known as "Scotland's National
Book Town" with a high concentration of second-hand book shops and an annual
book festival.
Wigtown is part of the
Machars
, photo = File:West Coast of the Machars - geograph.org.uk - 3085411.jpg
, photo_width =
, photo_alt =
, photo_caption = Luce Bay coastline of The Machars, south of Auchenmalg
, map = UK Scotla ...
peninsula.
History
Name origins
W.F.H. Nicolaisen offered two explanations for the place-name Wigtown. One theory was that it meant 'dwelling place', from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
'wic-ton'; however, if it is the same as
Wigton
Wigton is a market town in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just outside the Lake District in the borough of Allerdale. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells an ...
in
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...
, which was 'Wiggeton' in 1162 and 'Wigeton' in 1262, it may be 'Wigca's farm'. Other sources have suggested a
Norse root with 'Vik' meaning 'bay', giving the origin as a translation of 'The town on the bay'.
Neolithic Age
![Torehousekie Stone Circle - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Torehousekie_Stone_Circle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1098160.jpg)
The surrounding area (the
Machars
, photo = File:West Coast of the Machars - geograph.org.uk - 3085411.jpg
, photo_width =
, photo_alt =
, photo_caption = Luce Bay coastline of The Machars, south of Auchenmalg
, map = UK Scotla ...
peninsula) is rich in
prehistoric remains, most notably the
Torhousekie Standing Stones, a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
stone circle set on a raised platform of smaller stones. It consists of nineteen boulders up to 5 feet high aligned to the
winter solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...
, surrounding a
ring cairn
A ring cairn (also correctly termed a ring bank enclosure, but sometimes wrongly described as a ring barrow) is a circular or slightly oval, ring-shaped, low (maximum 0.5 metres high) embankment, several metres wide and from 8 to 20 metres in ...
on which there are 3 large stones (flankers), two upright and one recumbent. On a low ridge across the road from the circle there are another three stones.
Early history
Andrew Symson, a 17th-century minister, suggested the first settlement would have stood on low-lying sands between the present-day Wigtown and
Creetown
Creetown (, sometimes ) is a small seaside town in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in Galloway in the Dumfries and Galloway council area in south-west Scotland. Its population is about 750 people. It is situated near the head of Wigtown Bay, ...
. Wigtown had two ports (gates) which may have been closed at night to form a large cattle enclosure. These were East Port, opposite a site later occupied by the British Linen Bank, and the West Port, which stood opposite the mouth of the High
Vennel
A vennel is a passageway between the gables of two buildings which can in effect be a minor street in Scotland and the north east of England, particularly in the old centre of Durham.
Etymology
In Scotland, the term originated in royal burgh ...
.
Blackfriars, the
Dominican friary, was founded at "Friarland" north of the mouth of the Bladnoch, south-east of the town of Wigtown, by
Devorgilla in around 1267.
Wigtown Castle
Wigtown Castle was a royal castle that was located on the banks of the River Bladnoch, south of Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
A castle was built in the 12th century. Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale captured the castle in 1286. ...
was in existence by 1291, on flat land down by the
River Bladnoch
The Bladnoch is a river in Wigtownshire in the Machars of Galloway in southwest Scotland. One of the earliest descriptions of it is given by Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw and Sir David Dunbar in an appendix to Andrew Symson's work "A Large Descrip ...
, (outlines clearly seen on an aerial view), whilst the town and church were on a hill, "an inversion of the usual arrangements". Nothing remains of the castle, although a strong natural site and indication of a large enclosed and defended area seems to point to a castle of the Edwardian type (Edward I) dating from the end of the 13th century. The site of the castle was excavated after a fashion about 1830, by a Captain Robert M’Kerlie and a team of volunteers. The outlines of a building were clearly traced on that occasion and a ditch, which had been broad, was distinctly seen on the north where there was also a semi-circular ridge of considerable elevation said to be the remains of the castle's outer wall. A few years later, a reporter in the ''
New Statistical Account
The ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The ''Old (or First) Statistical Ac ...
'' wrote that a
fosse was quite discernible, although "the foundations of the walls cannot now be traced". Mortar and "other remains indicative of an ancient building" were still to be observed.
The town developed as port and became a
royal burgh
A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs.
Most royal burghs were either created by ...
in 1292.
The royal burgh was granted to
Sir Malcolm Fleming by
David II in 1341. In 1372 Wigtown was purchased by
Archibald the Grim
Archibald Douglas, Earl of Douglas and Wigtown, Lord of Galloway, Douglas and Bothwell (c. 1330 – c. 24 December 1400), called Archibald the Grim or Black Archibald, was a late medieval Scottish nobleman. Archibald was the bastard son of ...
Lord of Galloway. When he later became
Earl of Douglas
This page is concerned with the holders of the forfeit title Earl of Douglas and the preceding feudal barons of Douglas, South Lanarkshire. The title was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1358 for William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, so ...
in 1384, it became attached to that earldom. It was restored to its former tenure as a royal burgh as a result of the forfeiture of the Douglases in 1455. Its status was formally recognised be a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...
in 1457.
[
]
Wigtown Martyrs
Monuments to the Wigtown Martyrs
The Wigtown Martyrs or Solway Martyrs, Margaret Maclauchlan and Margaret Wilson, were Scottish Covenanters who were executed by Scottish Episcopalians on 11 May, 1685 in Wigtown, Scotland, by tying them to stakes on the town's mudflats and allowi ...
exist in Wigtown. During " The Killing Times" of the Covenanters in the 17th century, Margaret McLachlan, an elderly woman in her 60s, and Margaret Willson, a teenager, were sentenced to be tied to stakes in the tidal channel of the River Bladnoch near its entrance to Wigtown Bay
Wigtown Bay is a large inlet of the Irish Sea on the coast of Galloway in southwest Scotland. Its coastline falls entirely within the modern administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway and shared between the historical counties of Wigtownshire an ...
to be drowned
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
by the incoming tide. The execution date was 11 May 1685. The ploy was that the younger woman might be persuaded to change her mind after watching the older woman drown. The strategy failed and both died. This execution was carried out by dragoons under the command of Major Windram in the presence of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag who held the King's Commission to suppress the rebels in the South West. Their story, as told in various sources, tells how the women were betrayed by an informer. After about a month in prison they were tried as rebels and sentenced to death by drowning. The story of the Wigtown Martyrs was among those collected by Robert Wodrow
Robert Wodrow (167921 March 1734) was a Scottish minister and historian, known as a chronicler and defender of the Covenanters. Robert Wodrow was born at Glasgow, where his father, James Wodrow, was a professor of divinity. Robert was educate ...
and published in his ''History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution''. The Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
synod had decided in 1708 to collect accounts of persecution under the Stuart monarchs, and persuaded Wodrow to take on the research. He wrote that Thomas Wilson "lives now in his father's room, and is ready to attest all I am writing."
Later history
An early reference to a tolbooth
A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three esse ...
in Wigtown occurs in the late 16th century, and it is possible that this structure was blown up by gunpowder to make way for the new town hall which was completed in 1756. This municipal building in its turn gave way to the Wigtown County Buildings
Wigtown County Buildings, also known as Wigtown County Buildings and Town Hall, is a municipal building in The Square, Wigtown, Scotland. The structure primarily served as the meeting place and town hall for Wigtown Burgh Council, but was also u ...
which were erected in 1862. Wigtown removed its first mercat cross in the late 17th century. A second market cross was erected in the main street in 1818.
Andrew Symson, a 17th-century minister of the church at Kirkinner
Kirkinner ( gd, Cille Chainneir, IPA: ˆkʰʲiʎəˈxaɲɪɾʲ is a village in the Machars, in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. About southwest of Wigtown, it is bounded on the east by the bay of Wigtown ...
, left a description of Wigtown. Writing in 1684, he described Wigtown as having "a market for horses and young phillies...which the borderers come and buy in great numbers."
Residents of Wigtown and the surrounding area earned their livings in a variety of ways. An 18th-century observer, Samuel Robinson commented that from its peculiar position in relation to the sea, the county of Wigtown offered many singular advantages to the landing of smuggled goods and smugglers
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
were not slow in taking advantage of this: however after a barracks was built "the trade and those who conducted it were ruined".
Robinson, describing Wigtown, also noted that "the greatest number of houses were of a homely character, thatched and one storey high".
The Newton Stewart to Whithorn branch railway line had a station at Wigtown which opened in 1877.
Recent history
Wigtown was described by William Learmonth in 1920 as the quaintest county town in Scotland.
RAF Wigtown
Royal Air Force Wigtown, or more simply RAF Wigtown, is a former Royal Air Force station within the Dumfries and Galloway region of southwest Scotland. It was built on the Machars peninsula near the village of Wigtown and lies east of Stranra ...
was constructed on the outskirts of the town and opened in 1941. Under the control of 29 Group RAF, the Station was home to No. 1 Air Observers School, later No. 1 Advanced Flying Unit (Observer), as well as providing a short-term home to several operational RAF squadrons. The Station was closed in 1948. Today it is very occasionally used by light aircraft, sometimes being referred to as Baldoon Airfield.
In the 1990s Wigtown became Scotland's " book town". However, in contrast to Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the to ...
, Wigtown's status as a book town was planned, in order to regenerate a very depressed town (the main employers, the creamery
A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream re ...
and distillery, having closed in the 1990s), although the distillery (Bladnoch) has now re-opened and is distilling its own malt whisky. There was a national search in Scotland for a candidate town. The Wigtown Book Festival
The Wigtown Book Festival is a ten-day literary festival held each autumn in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. The festival was first held in 1999 and has grown to be the second biggest book festival in Scotland.
In 2007 the Wig ...
was first held in 1999 and grew to be the second largest book festival in Scotland.
Education
Wigtown Primary School is based in New Road in Wigtown.
Churches
Wigtown Parish Church was designed in the Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and completed in 1858.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church was designed in the Gothic Revival style and completed in 1879.
Wigtown Quaker Meeting House is as at Chapel Court, South Main Street.
Wigtown Baptist Church is in Southfield Lane.
Places of interest
Wigtown lies less than from Bladnoch, a village with a distillery producing malt whisky of the same name. The River Bladnoch can be fished for Atlantic salmon and has historically been well known as one of Scotland's finest rivers producing spring fish. It meets the River Cree in Wigtown Bay, meandering through a large area of salt marsh
A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...
which has been designated as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR). Wigtown Bay is the largest LNR in Britain, and is home to a wealth of wildlife, particularly birds. Some people come to admire them from the comfort of the viewing hides situated near the harbour, others, wildfowlers, come to harvest some of the plentiful ducks and geese attracted by the extensive conservation work carried out by the Wigtown Wildfowling Club. The first pair of osprey
The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...
s to return to Galloway in over 100 years arrived in 2004. A live camera link to their nest was created and can be viewed in the Wigtown County Buildings
Wigtown County Buildings, also known as Wigtown County Buildings and Town Hall, is a municipal building in The Square, Wigtown, Scotland. The structure primarily served as the meeting place and town hall for Wigtown Burgh Council, but was also u ...
.
To the east of Wigtown is The Martyrs' Stake, a monument marking the traditional site where the Wigtown Martyrs were drowned in the 17th century. Their graves are in the Parish Church cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
. There is a small cell in the County Buildings in which they were imprisoned prior to their execution. This cell is all that remains of a much older building which was largely destroyed to make way for the County Buildings (built in 1862).
In popular culture
Jessica A. Fox's ''Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets'' (2013) is her account of following her dream and moving from Los Angeles and a job at NASA to help run a bookshop in Wigtown and finding love.
Shaun Bythell's ''The Diary of a Bookseller,'' published 2017, and ''Confessions of a Bookseller'' (2019) detail his experiences as the owner of The Bookshop, Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop.
The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported on 2 October 2018 that options on Fox's book and Bythell's first book had been bought by "a Hollywood film company" with the idea of combining them to create a movie.
In the
team come from the town.
was not (as he claimed) born at Wigtown, he did have ancestral links with the area.
*
'', etc.), grew up in the town and was educated at All Souls' School in Wigtown.
*
, veterinary surgeon and professor of veterinary science was born in Wigtown.
*
holder. He was aged 24 and the son of Mrs Catherine McGuffie of 1 North Main Street, Wigtown. He is buried at the
, author. His book ''The Wigtown Ploughman'' gave its name to one of the local pubs.
*
.
.