Walk 2.8 - Wigtown Bay & Scotland's National Book Town
Distance - 4 miles (6.5km)
Ascent - 40 metres
Difficulty Level - Easy
Start - Multi Start Point (Sunday) NX450 646
Depart - 1300hrs
Return - 1630hrs

This is an amiable short walk full of interest and lovely views from Scotland's National Book Town. By path and track, back lane and route of old railway, it visits two bird hides, one overlooking the estuary of the River Bladnoch and together affording sweeping views across salt marsh and mudflats to Wigtown Bay and the mountains beyond.

There is a wealth of birdlife to be viewed - ducks and geese, waterfowl, waders, gulls and terns... All this is in a mainly level loop of about three-and-a-half miles. Two monuments to the religious dissenters known as Covenanters, who were persecuted during the 'Killing Times' of the late seventeenth Century, are visited along the way, one an optional extension to Windy Hill to see the Wigtown Martyrs' memorial and sample the vista above the rooftops to the hills.

The route returns to Wigtown and its abundance of bookshops, with cafes, pubs and stores besides. Additionally, in the imposing Gothic County Buildings (town hall) there should be the chance to view live and recorded footage of Galloway's own ospreys, filmed from within five feet of the nest, which proved such an attraction throughout 2004, when the parent birds successfully reared two chicks.

This walk starts from the Multi Start Point at Kirroughtree Visitor Centre. There will be a bus transfer to the starting point outside the Town Hall in Wigtown.

Book Now - There are no limits to the number of walkers on this route.