Broughton

About Broughton

Buchan’s own favourite novel, "Witch Wood", is set in the parish of Woodilee, a thinly veiled version of Broughton. Broughton was also the prototype for the setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s last, unfinished novel, "The Weir of Hermiston".

The Crook Inn is close to Linumdoddie – the setting for Robert Burn’s poem "Willie Wastle".

The bleak landscape of this area inspired the first of Buchan’s many ‘adventure’ stories, "John Burnet of Barns" and it is not difficult to see in these wild hills the inkling of his greatest such story, "The Thirty Nine Steps". "John Burnet of Barns" takes place in the 17th century and capitalises on the stern history of this valley.