Wigtown

About Wigtown

In his time as Exciseman Burns would surely have passed through Wigtown on more than one occasion and must surely have stayed en route to home in Dumfries. With no journal notes it is pure speculation where he may have spent his night. But the current Galloway Inn had been constructed as a private house in the mid-1700s and became a public house known as the King’s Arms at a later date. It is known the property was considerably larger than its present day form and it is quite likely the adjacent Southfield House was part of the 96 foot frontage of the inn which had considerable rooms and apartments and a walled fruit garden at the back.
Today’s Wigtown would surely have fascinated Burns, with its status as Scotland’s National Book Town and more than a dozen bookshops plying their trade.