From Tales of Murder to Pirate Hunters
Bre Martin, who runs New Chapter Books, has found them all by studying the headstones in Galloway graveyards
Bre's talks on the subject proved so popular that he now has a book on the way, Kirkyard Chronicles. He’ll also be speaking at this year’s festival – we had a chat with him in advance.
Tell us about the joys of wandering Galloway kirkyards.
I can’t think of anything better than wondering round Galloway’s old kirkyards. They shouldn’t be seen as a place of death. A stroll around an old kirkyard surrounded by nature, history, and peace, can do more for your heart and soul than you may think.
What’s one of your favourite gravestones?
When I was child, there was a stone in Whithorn’s old kirkyard that caught my eye. It was of a mariner by the name of William Broadfoot, but it wasn’t the inscription on the front that made it interesting but rather what appears on the back: “If you think I’m forgot, you’re mistaken”. I love the fact that this was included, and that this inscription, though worn and weathered, still points a defiant finger at the passerby after all this time.
Do you plan to have an interesting headstone of your own?
We’ve learned a lot from the 17th ,18th and 19th -century headstones which tended to be made of sandstone which weathers badly, but now we have rows of impersonal granite. We’ve lost the individualism of the headstones in old kirkyards where no two were the same. I’d probably go for something that defies council regulations and requires air-traffic to be warned when flying close to it.
As a Wigtown bookseller - what makes the town so special for visitors?
Simply to have a place where you can meander from bookshop to bookshop, each one different and with its own vibe where you can pick up a book on virtually any subject, is as close to heaven for a booklover as you can get.
What are you reading right now, and is it any good?
It sounds like I’m making it up, what with my interest in the dead, but you did ask. It’s a collection of Victorian ghost stories by various authors from Catherine Crowe to Charles Dickens. If anyone knew how to write a good, honest, ghost story, it was the Victorians…and I love it!
You can purchase tickets for Bre Martin's event - and 17 other early bird events - until 31st May with 10% off the ticket price. The full programme of 2026 events will be released to the public on 24th July.