County town: Wigtown
Wigtownshire occupies the Rhinns of Galloway and the Machars peninsula, the south-western tip of Scotland. It was one of the earliest parts of Scotland to receive Christianity, with the monastery of Whithorn founded by St Ninian around 400 AD.
Wigtownshire is the remote peninsula of the Rhinns of Galloway and the Machars, a county of ancient Christian sites, cattle farming, and dramatic coastal scenery. Whithorn, near the southern tip, was where Christianity first came to Scotland — St Ninian's monastery of the early 5th century is the oldest documented Christian site in Scotland, predating Columba's Iona by 150 years. Wigtown, the county town, is now Scotland's National Book Town, its secondhand bookshops drawing visitors from across Britain. The county's Galloway cattle and farming have sustained it economically for centuries. The landscape of Logan Botanic Garden benefits from the warming influence of the Gulf Stream.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Wigtownshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Wigtownshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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