Wigtown Harbour

From the 1400s the old Wigtown Harbour near St Machute's Church was the western terminus of the ferry across the River Cree and Wigtown Bay to Creetown. The silting of the River Bladnoch and Wigtown Bay interfered with ships sailing to Wigtown from as early as the 1600s. By the mid 1900s the new harbour built in 1818 to the south of Wigtown had ceased to function. It was recorded as disused in 1976. In the mid 1980s the 'new' harbour was restored and improved however it is once again heavily silted. Wigtown Castle once stood on the original course of the River Bladnoch and helped to provide protection from English incursions coming across the Solway Firth.

Considerable restoration and improvement works were carried out in the 1980s. The harbour basin has silted up however ships can still berth here and two slipways provide access to the river for smaller boats. A number of historical interpretation boards provide information for visitors and the car park on the quay sees moderate use by visitors to the bird watching hide that allows views across the large areas of salt marsh which have been designated as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR). In 2004 the first pair of ospreys to return to Galloway in over 100 years nested here.