The Machars – Old Stones, a Distillery Café and the Book Town
A day.
The route
The Machars is the peninsula between Luce Bay and Wigtown Bay, and a ring of granite boulders stands in a field beside the road at Torhouse.
This day starts there, goes on to lunch at Café Melba at Bladnoch Distillery, and gives the afternoon to Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, and a long browse along its shelves.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Wigtown
It's a gentle day of old stones and old books, with the three stops close together. The morning starts in a field on the B733, and the rest of the day is indoors, at a distillery café and among the bookshops of Wigtown.
From late morning to the end of the afternoon
Torhouse Stone Circle
Torhouse Stone Circle is on the B733, a little over three miles west of Wigtown, with a large layby beside it and a gate in the stone wall. Nineteen granite boulders stand in a ring on a slight rise, graded in size with the biggest to the south-east, and three more stand in a line in the middle. Folklore makes these the tomb of King Gauldus, a mythical king said to have fought the Romans. Any burial beneath them came long before the Romans, and the circle may have been set round it later.
About 5 min by car
Bladnoch Distillery
Lunch
Bladnoch is a few miles on, a mile south-west of Wigtown, and Café Melba is at the distillery, with free parking. It serves light lunches, desserts and cakes, and a drinks list of whiskies, cocktails, wines and beers for whoever isn't driving. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Bladnoch was founded in 1817, on the north bank of the River Bladnoch. If you'd like a distillery tour as well, book it online by midnight the day before.
About 5 min by car
Wigtown
An attraction
Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, is just up the road, with bookshops round its square and the streets off it. Park round the square, where there are public toilets. The Book Shop on North Main Street bills itself as Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop, with around 100,000 books on about a mile of shelves, open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm. On South Main Street, the Old Bank Bookshop sells second-hand books and sheet music; in winter it opens Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 5pm, and on occasional Sundays, especially in December.
If it rains
Torhouse is quick to see in a good coat, and lunch and the bookshops are all indoors.
Photographs by Craig Dixon and Andy Blundell via Google