Editing Wigtown (section)

===Recent history===
Wigtown was described by William Learmonth in 1920 as the quaintest county town in Scotland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/kirkcudbrightshi00learuoft#page/50/mode/2up|title=Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire|first=William |last=Learmouth|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1920|page=51}}</ref>

[[RAF Wigtown]] was constructed on the outskirts of the town and opened in 1941. Under the control of 29 Group RAF, the Station was home to No. 1 Air Observers School, later No. 1 Advanced Flying Unit (Observer), as well as providing a short-term home to several operational RAF squadrons. The Station was closed in 1948. Today it is very occasionally used by light aircraft, sometimes being referred to as Baldoon Airfield.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/wigtown-baldoon/ |title=Wigtown (Baldoon) |publisher=[[Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust]]|access-date=15 September 2022}}</ref>[[File:RAF Wigtown (2).jpg|thumb|right|Aerial view of RAF Wigtown/Baldoon Airfield (April 2023)]]

In the 1990s Wigtown became Scotland's "[[book town]]". However, in contrast to [[Hay-on-Wye]], Wigtown's status as a book town was planned, in order to regenerate a very depressed town (the main employers, the [[creamery]] and [[distillery]], having closed in the 1990s), although the distillery ([[Bladnoch distillery|Bladnoch]]) has now re-opened and is distilling its own [[malt whisky]]. There was a national search in Scotland for a candidate town. The [[Wigtown Book Festival]] was first held in 1999<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url = http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/news/wigtown-book-festival-to-set-sail-on-solway-firth-1-3523025|title = Wigtown Book Festival to set sail on Solway Firth|last = Ferguson|first = Brain|date = 27 August 2014|work = The Scotsman: Scotland on Sunday|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140830212939/http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/news/wigtown-book-festival-to-set-sail-on-solway-firth-1-3523025|archive-date = 2014-08-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The Edinburgh history of the book in Scotland|publisher = Edinburgh University Press|year = 2008|isbn = 978-0-7486-1829-3|location = Edinburgh|page = 453|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=2CmkBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA453|volume = 4: Professionalism and diversity 1880-2000|editor-last = Finklestein|editor-first = David|editor-last2 = McCleery|editor-first2 = Alistair}}</ref> and grew to be the second largest book festival in Scotland.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Lost in location: arts development and policy in rural Scotland|last = Lu|first = Yu Tonia|publisher = University of Glasgow (PhD thesis)|year = 2015|pages = 152|url = http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5899/1/2014LuYTphd.pdf}}</ref> There are currently around a dozen bookshops in the town.