Fancy running a book shop that comes with an Airbnb in south-west Scotland?

Wigtown is Scotland's National Book Town | James Chapelard for WBF

I’m feeling very chuffed after selling two books and welcoming 10 people into the shop...

It is a holiday with a difference: I’m staying at an Airbnb which comes with a bookshop. It’s in Wigtown and operates under the auspices of the town’s annual book festival.

Amazingly, I have full control of the Open Book – after being shown round, I have the keys, passwords and can set opening hours, change displays, and devise ways to boost my takings.

The only dilemma is how much time to spend playing bookseller in the lovely little shop and how much exploring this glorious corner of south-west Scotland. Luckily, I’ve known this part of the world since my teens, so I am happy to stay close to base.

Wigtown, Scotland's national book town sits on the Solway Firth | Colin Tennant

But more than that, I am loving being part of the Wigtown community. It was Joyce Cochrane, who herself owns the Old Bank Bookshop with her husband Ian, who had been there with the keys when I arrived.

She has shown me round the town, introducing me to the other shopkeepers and some of the best coffee stops. I am soon telling everyone I am the “Open Booker”. It is a great calling card and opens doors – and conversations – and I quickly feel part of everything.

The town is bursting with books. There are coffee shops with books, toy shops with shelves of them and even a guest house with a literary theme.

And, of course, there is the Wigtown Book Festival shop where the organising team is busy upstairs. It might be late autumn – when many places are marking time before Christmas – but here it is a pause after the successful book festival at the end of September.

Not that the organisers’ work is ever done and while I am staying, there is Book Week

Scotland keeping them busy spreading the word in schools.

Across the road is the Old Bank Bookshop. It is a veritable Aladdin’s cave: six rooms racked up with books of all genres. And, as Joyce and Ian are both talented musicians, there’s a strong music section.

As my time at the Open Book goes on, I quickly understand how they could give up Edinburgh life two decades ago to risk everything and open up their own book store.

In the Open Book, I chatted to each of the customers, telling them about the bookshop and how it runs.

The initiative was the idea of author and film-maker Jessica Fox, a Californian who fell in love with Wigtown and settled there.

Jessica Fox, owner of The Open Book | Colin Hattersley

From the shop you look down the square, the very heart of the ancient burgh. Upstairs, the well-equipped flat calls out for you to curl up with a book, but I have to admit I find the view of the Co-Op weirdly fascinating and am soon imagining the most far-fetched of reasons why people need flowers in the middle of the evening.

Americans flock to stay in the Open Book inspired by the Wigtown life which has been chronicled both by Jessica and by Shaun Bythell, the Wigtown bookseller she fell in (and out of) love with.

Just as I’m doing, the international guests live the dream, discovering the town and exploring the countryside. However, as I’m keen to hear the cash register ring, I think my first expedition ought not to shut the shop for long so I choose the nearest attraction.

Conveniently, I turn right from the shop door and Bladnoch Distillery is a mile’s walk away. Here they have been crafting whisky since 1817, but today a touch of Australian flair goes into the spirit thanks to the owner – Melbourne entrepreneur, David Prior – who has reinvigorated the distillery since he bought it in 2015. The tour ends surrounded by filled whisky barrels, admiring the one put aside for King Charles, before we head to the visitor centre to taste some of the Bladnoch malts.

Bladnoch Distillery | Bladnoch

I use another break from my Open Book duties to explore Garlieston and Rigg Bay about eight miles away. I want to learn more about the Mulberry harbours and how the bay doubled up for the beaches of Arromanches before the prefabricated structures were used after the D Day Landings in June 1944.

Rigg Bay | Fiona Laing

Many of the Open Bookers take up an offer of a tour from book festival volunteer Dave Fuller.

After all the Machars – as the peninsula is known – is full of history, with evidence of early Christians, the Bronze and Iron ages and plenty of pretty Georgian houses.

As you head west, you might spot the iconic Belted Galloway cattle and then on the coast there’s Monreith, home of Ring of Bright Water author Gavin Maxwell and Port William, a popular fishing village. It is on this coast, overlooking Luce Bay, that I spent long-ago summers.

Dave drives me down the east coast of the Machars to Rigg Bay. We park near the imposing Galloway House and walk through the arboretum to the beach. I can’t see any evidence of the harbours, but the long strand makes sense with my memories of the beaches in Normandy. And it is a lovely spot with the Lake District hills on the horizon.

Each day, as I unlock the Open Book, I wonder how many customers will come in and if they will spend anything. Happily I have two good days, but I am keen to drum up business, so I put on a meet-the-author event.

As I don’t think talking to me about my books – even though they are about gin – will be enticing enough, I had taken a detour on my drive south to find an appropriate bribe.

Fiona Laing's Meet the Author event at The Open Book bookshop, Wigtown | Fiona Laing

Kirkcudbright is an attractive Georgian fishing port with a ruined castle and a reputation as an artists’ town. There is obviously plenty to discover but my destination is Scotland’s most southerly distillery – Dark Arts.

It is located in The Johnston – a former primary school – which also houses the Dark Space Planetarium. You can’t miss the building – there’s a huge wicker horse outside in a nod to the cult Wicker Man film and the later music festival.

Horse sculpture tribute to the locally-filmed The Wicker Man at The Johnston, Dark Sky Distillery, Kircudbright | Fiona Laing

Inside the distillery, which opened in 2021, is Peggy, a top-of-the-range 450-litre Carl still and it is making two gins and Véspero – an agave spirit which is a Scottish homage to tequila.

The craft gins – Dark Sky and Under Story – are both great examples. I probably prefer the spicy warm notes of Under Story, but when I do tastings as part of my “meet the author” afternoons at the Open Book, everyone agrees that Dark Sky is a bright classic London dry gin – fresh and delicious. Under Story is more earthy and conjures up the pine of the Galloway forests. Both bottles are works of art – decorated at Image on Glass in Perthshire – and Dark Sky really captures the clear nights of Galloway which makes stargazing here unavoidable.

As I lock the door on the books at the end of the day, the stars are twinkling in the clear frosty night sky.

Factfile

Bookings for the Open Book are through Airbnb https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7908227

The Wigtown Book Festival 26 September to 5 October 2025. www.wigtownbookfestival.com

Old Bank Bookshop, Wigtown, https://oldbankbookshop.co.uk

Bladnoch Distillery, Bladnoch, Wigtonshire, DG8 9AB https://bladnoch.com

Dark Art Distillery, The Johnston, St Mary Street, Kirkcudbright, DG6 4EG.

www.darkartdistillery.com