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Bike touring routes & trails

United Kingdom

Scotland

South Scotland

Royal Burgh Of Wigtown And District

Wigtown Martyrs Stake Memorial – Wigtown Book Town loop from Wigtown

Routes

Bike touring routes & trails

United Kingdom

Scotland

South Scotland

Royal Burgh Of Wigtown And District

Wigtown Martyrs Stake Memorial – Wigtown Book Town loop from Wigtown

Moderate

4.0

(2)

riders

Wigtown Martyrs Stake Memorial – Wigtown Book Town loop from Wigtown

01:38

26.8km

180m

Cycling

Moderate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: May 10, 2026

Waypoints

Start point

Bus stop

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8 m

Café Rendezvous

Highlight • Cafe

Fantastic coffee shop serving the usual.

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5.52 km

The stone circle consists of nineteen granite boulders set on a slightly raised platform. Local tradition maintains that the three large stones in the center of the circle contained the tomb of Galdus, a mythical Scottish king. A similar story is told about one of the tombs at Cairnholy, also in Galloway.

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25.3 km

National Cycle Network Route 73

Highlight • Trail

A quiet and smooth piece of tarmac that takes you into or out of Wigtown. The whole route stretched much further, so you can enjoy peaceful and low-traffic scenery all the way to Newton Stewart.

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26.0 km

Wigtown Martyrs Stake Memorial

Highlight • Monument

The Wigtown Martyrs or Solway Martyrs, Margaret Maclauchlan and Margaret Wilson were Scottish Covenanters who were executed by Scottish Episcopalians in 1685 in Wigtown, Scotland, by tying them to stakes on the town's mudflats and allowing them to drown with the rising tide.

Monuments to the 'Wigtown Martyrs' exist in Wigtown. During "The Killing Times" of the Covenanters in the 17th century, Margaret McLachlan, an elderly woman of around 63, and Margaret Wilson, around 18 years of age, were sentenced to be tied to stakes in the tidal channel of the River Bladnoch near its entrance to Wigtown Bay to be drowned by the incoming tide. The ploy was that the younger woman might be persuaded to change her mind after watching the older woman drown. The strategy failed and both died. This execution was carried out by dragoons under the command of Major Windram in the presence of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag who held the King's Commission to suppress the rebels in the South West. Their story, as told in various sources, tells how the women were betrayed by an informer. After about a month in prison they were tried as rebels and sentenced to death by drowning. The story of the Wigtown Martyrs was among those collected by Robert Wodrow and published in his History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution. The Church of Scotland synod had decided in 1708 to collect accounts of persecution under the Stuart monarchs, and persuaded Wodrow to take on the research. He wrote that Thomas Wilson "lives now in his father's room, and is ready to attest all I am writing."

There are two graves to the women in the local churchyard and on nearby Windy Hill there is a memorial obelisk. There is also a stone at the point where they died.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigtown_Martyrs

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