Wigton

Wigton sits on the flat, fertile Solway Plain in Cumbria, roughly twelve miles south-west of Carlisle and within striking distance of both the Lake District's northern fells and the wide skies of the Solway Firth. It is very much a working market town rather than a tourist honeypot, and that is part of its appeal: a genuine Cumberland community with a Georgian High Street, a long market history, and none of the crowds that build up around Windermere or Keswick in summer.

The town received its market charter back in 1262, and for centuries afterwards it grew rich on textiles rather than tourism, with linen check manufactories, calico printing works, dyeworks and tanneries lining the streets and the Wiza Beck. That industrial history has left Wigton with a solid stock of Georgian and Victorian buildings, several of them now listed, clustered around the old market square. The town is also known as the birthplace of the writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, whose oral history of the town, Speak for England, drew on the memories of people who worked in the same clothing factories his own mother knew. For visitors, Wigton makes a useful, unshowy base: quiet enough for a proper break, but close enough to the Lakes and the coast that nothing of interest is ever far away.

Top things to do in Wigton

Wigton itself is a small town best explored on foot, but it is also a gateway — to the Solway coast in one direction and the northern Lake District fells in the other. Here are some of the best things to see and do in and around the town.

• Wigton Market Square and High Street — the heart of the old market town, lined with Georgian buildings including several Grade II listed inns, and still home to a memorial fountain and regular market trading that dates back to a charter granted in 1262.
• Highmoor — a striking Victorian mansion built in 1885 for the Banks family, notable for its clock tower and carillon bell known locally as "Big Joe"; it has since been converted into flats but remains a Wigton landmark.
• John Peel Theatre — home to Wigton Theatre Club since 1952, and the town's focal point for amateur drama and community events.
• Solway Coast National Landscape — the AONB-designated coastline a short drive north of Wigton, offering huge skies, saltmarsh, and views across the Solway Firth to the Scottish hills.
• RSPB Campfield Marsh — a nature reserve on the Solway shore that began with a 52-hectare saltmarsh purchase in 1987 and has since grown to 335 hectares of saltmarsh, peat bog, farmland and wet grassland, rich in wading birds and wildfowl, particularly in winter.
• Wigton railway station and the Cumbrian Coast Line — while a functional rather than scenic asset in town, the line itself threads out along some of Cumbria's least-visited coastal scenery towards Maryport, Workington and beyond.
• The northern Lake District — Wigton's inland position means the fells around Bassenthwaite and Keswick, and the quieter valleys of the northern Lakes, are within a manageable drive, without the need to stay in the busier honeypot towns.

Getting to Wigton

Wigton is easily reached by road via the A596, which links the town to Carlisle in the east and the west Cumbrian coast towns of Maryport and Workington. From the M6 at Carlisle, the usual route is south-west along the A595 for around five miles to the Thursby roundabout, then onto the A596 for a further six miles into Wigton — a journey of about twenty minutes in normal traffic.

Wigton also has its own railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, with an hourly service operated by Northern Trains. The journey from Carlisle takes around twenty minutes, making Wigton a straightforward stop for anyone arriving by train from further afield via Carlisle's main line connections.

Best time to visit Wigton

Like the rest of Cumbria, Wigton has a temperate but changeable climate, and its position on the Solway Plain means it tends to be a little drier and less exposed to fell weather than the high Lake District to the south. Late spring and summer, from May to August, bring the longest days and the best chance of settled weather for exploring the Solway coast and the surrounding countryside. Winter visits have their own appeal for birdwatchers, when wildfowl numbers build up on the Solway marshes at reserves such as Campfield Marsh. As with anywhere in Cumbria, it is sensible to pack for rain whatever the season.

Where to stay in Wigton

Wigton and its surrounding villages offer a mix of traditional Cumbrian bed and breakfasts, farm stays, and caravan and holiday parks, generally at more affordable rates than the honeypot towns of the central Lake District. Options range from small family-run B&Bs on working farms to caravan parks set in the quiet countryside between the town and the Solway coast, making Wigton a practical and good-value base for touring both the Lakes and the Solway shore.

Food and drink in Wigton

Wigton's High Street retains several historic coaching inns and pubs that reflect the town's Georgian heritage. The Lion, on the High Street, occupies a late 18th-century Grade II listed building and has served as one of the town's principal hotels and pubs for generations. Nearby, the Kildare is another Grade II listed High Street building with a long history as a town-centre hotel, while the Hare and Hounds on West Street occupies a late 17th or early 18th-century listed building. Together they give Wigton a solid core of traditional Cumbrian pub food and a proper local atmosphere, in keeping with a working market town rather than a tourist resort.