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Inside ReadingLasses: shelves of new books by women writers on one side, and the café counter on the other, with cakes under glass domes, a chandelier and bottles on a shelf above.
Dumfries and Galloway

ReadingLasses

A bookshop and café on South Main Street in Wigtown, specialising in books by and about women, with homemade cakes.

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Welcome

There's something lovely about a bookshop where the smell of baking meets you at the door, and ReadingLasses on South Main Street in Wigtown is exactly that.

It was the first new bookshop to open in the town after Wigtown was named Scotland's National Book Town in 1998, and its speciality is books by and about women, from prize-winning novels to art, travel, nature and science, with a shelf of eighteenth and nineteenth-century women writers among them. Thousands more books wait in The Hut, an old Second World War telephone exchange that is also the shop's event space. The café is the other half of the pleasure, with a counter of homemade cakes under glass domes, good coffee and lunch. Choose a book, pick a slice and settle in among the shelves, or take your cup to the seats outside on a sunny day. Dogs are welcome, and it's open from 10am to 4pm, closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Round the cornerThe Book Shop, WigtownScotland's largest second-hand bookshop, in Wigtown, with around 100,000 books on over a mile of shelves, a log fire and a shop cat.1 min by roadSee itVintage typewriter and stacked leather books beside a tartan-cushioned armchair in a library
Before you go

A bookshop with a café: books by and about women, and cakes baked in the shop.

Where
17 South Main Street, Wigtown, DG8 9EH.
Open
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm; closed Wednesday and Sunday.
Café
Coffee, cakes and lunch, with seats outside.
Dogs
Welcome.
Access
Wheelchair-accessible seating and toilet.
Phone
01988 403266

Opening hours

Monday
10am–4pm
Tuesday
10am–4pm
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
10am–4pm
Friday
10am–4pm
Saturday
10am–4pm
Sunday
Closed

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Where it is

On South Main Street in Wigtown, DG8 9EH.

Close byThe bookshops of Wigtown, and the Machars.
  1. The Old Bank BookshopA secondhand bookshop of six rooms in Wigtown's old Custom House and bank on South Main Street, with a whole room of sheet music.Under a mile 1 min by road
  2. Stone cottage with a green Celtic knot sign, seen through a leafy tunnelByre Books, WigtownA secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, down a pend and through a small garden, specialising in folklore, mythology, theatre, film, archaeology, poetry and Scotland.Under a mile 1 min by road
  3. Whitewashed cottage row with green doors and hanging flower baskets on a village streetWell-Read Books of WigtownA secondhand bookshop in Wigtown, opened in 2018 in the old Grapes Bar by Ruth Anderson, a retired QC, with a crime book club.Under a mile 1 min by road
  4. White corner building with green trim on a street corner, signed The Open BookThe Open BookA bookshop in Wigtown with a holiday flat above, where guests run the shop for the length of their stay.Under a mile 1 min by road
  5. WigtownWigtownScotland's National Book Town, a small town on the Machars with bookshops around its square and a book festival every autumn.Under a mile 1 min by road
  6. Whithorn Priory and MuseumWhithorn Priory and MuseumThe ruins of the priory and cathedral of Galloway at Whithorn, for 1,000 years a place of pilgrimage to St Ninian, with a museum of early carved stones.11 miles 17 min by road
  7. Cairn Holy Chambered CairnCairn Holy Chambered CairnTwo Neolithic tombs on a hillside above Wigtown Bay, with the sea below.18 miles 26 min by road
Directions
Vintage typewriter and stacked leather books beside a tartan-cushioned armchair in a libraryShoppingThe Book Shop, WigtownA step away
Copper pot stills in a row in the still house at Bladnoch Distillery, under a timber ceiling, with the spirit safe beyond.AttractionsBladnoch Distillery1.0 miles
A woman with grey hair and glasses smiles beside a large tree trunk in woodland, wearing a green jacket with a round embroidered badge.AttractionsFreelance Ranger3.4 miles as the crow flies
Whisky barrels line a gravel path beside a distillery's glass-fronted timber buildingAttractionsGalloway Distillery6.4 miles
Landing craft 433 unloads vehicles onto a Mulberry harbour pontoon causewayAttractionsGarlieston Mulberry Harbour7.9 miles
Terraced shopfronts and colourful houses line a quiet street beneath grey skiesAttractionsWhithorn11 miles
Carved stone slab with cup and ring marks set among grassAttractionsDrumtroddan Cup and Ring Marked Rocks11 miles

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