Wigtown

Coordinates: 54°52′12″N 4°26′20″W / 54.870°N 4.439°W / 54.870; -4.439

Wigtown (Scottish Gaelic: Baile na h-Ùige) is a town and former royal burgh in Wigtownshire, of which it is the county town, within the Dumfries and Galloway region in Scotland. It lies east of Stranraer and south of Newton Stewart. It is well known today as "Scotland's National Book Town" with a high concentration of second-hand book shops. It has a population of about 1,000.

Wigtown is the gateway to and main centre of the Machars peninsula.

Due to the North Atlantic Drift (Gulf Stream) the climate is mild and plants normally associated with the Southern Hemisphere can successfully be grown here.

Scotland's National Book Town

Today Wigtown is known as Scotland's "book town" and compared to Hay-on-Wye in Wales for the same reason. There is a significant difference from Hay-on-Wye: Wigtown's status as a book town was planned, in order to regenerate a very depressed town (the main employers, the creamery 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.

Wigtown Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

Wigtown Burghs, also known as Wigton Burghs,. was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. It was represented by one Member of Parliament (MP).

The first election in Wigtown Burghs was in 1708. In 1707–08, members of the 1702–1707 Parliament of Scotland were co-opted to serve in the 1st Parliament of Great Britain. See Scottish representatives to the 1st Parliament of Great Britain, for further details.

Boundaries

The constituency was a district of burghs created to represent the Royal burghs of New Galloway, Stranraer, Whithorn and Wigtown, which had all been separately represented with one commissioner each in the former Parliament of Scotland.

In 1885 the district was abolished. New Galloway became part of the Kirkcudbrightshire constituency and the other three burghs were included in the Wigtownshire seat.

Political history

Wigtown (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Wigtown was a royal burgh that returned one commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland and to the Convention of Estates.

After the Acts of Union 1707, Wigtown, New Galloway, Stranraer and Whithorn formed the Wigtown district of burghs, returning one member between them to the House of Commons of Great Britain.

See also