A book event in Wigtown and touring south west Scotland

Last year I spent a few days at the cottage of my old school friend Stephen in Monreith, which is in the Machars, a peninsula in Dumfries and Galloway and I'm just back from another trip there. One of several highlights was an evening spent in conversation with Ruth Anderson of Well Read Books in Wigtown, a sell-out event in the book town's delightful community pub, The Wigtown Ploughman. Given that pubs everywhere seem to be under threat, this kind of enterprising venture is one that I hope will become more common.

Ruth's bookshop is fun to explore, and I picked up a few titles during my trip to Wigtown, even though I tried to exercise restraint (not easy when it comes to acquiring books). I also discovered that Wigtown has a rather charming harbour area, a relic of the past before the river Cree silted up. Thanks to Stephen's hospitality I also enjoyed travelling around in the area and visiting Newton Stewart as well as the beautiful Glenwhan Gardens, villages like the Isle of Whithorn (really, a peninsula on the tip of a bigger peninsula, the Machars) and the Rhins, another peninsula which ends in the southernmost point in Scotland. I got the glimmerings of an idea for a short story set in the area - probably to be called 'The Scares', after splendidly named local rocks. The main challenge will be finding time to write it...

At the Mull of Galloway, there is a lighthouse which featured in that dark but compelling film The Vanishing, which I wrote about on this blog three years ago (in the film, the lighthouse is on an island). We were lucky with the weather and there are some delightful off-the-beaten-track places. On the way home, I enjoyed looking round Threave Gardens and the Threave Nature Reserve. A great little trip. But now it's back to writing the novel...