Interesting bookshops of Scotland - Feet on Foreign Lands

Are you a booklover who can lose hours and hours in a bookshop? Read on for a round up of some of the bookshops M and I found on our trip to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Book Festival. A selection of interesting bookshops from right across Scotland.

My (almost) life-long friend, M and I were on a bucket-list trip to Scotland, primarily to go to the Edinburgh International Book Festival. However, we could hardly go all that way and not see a bit of the rest of the country, could we? A Highland road-trip consisted of an overload of rugged scenery, swathes of green fields and picturesque lochs, but it also meant pit-stops at any interesting bookshops we found along the way.

Leakey’s Bookshop – Inverness

Leakey’s Bookshop is something else! Located in a former church which was built (and rebuilt) over several time periods from the 17th Century onwards, it is piled high with about 100,000 secondhand books. A spiral staircase connects a laden mezzanine level with the Aladdins’ cave of books below where a central wood fire must keep it cosy in winter months. Leakey’s has Scotland’s largest collection of old, rare and second-hand books and maps.

Books are organised thematically, but with such a huge range on offer we were overwhelmed with where to start!

M and I were particularly taken with Leakey’s selection of maps and we were very tempted to buy half-inch maps for all the sections of Scotland we travelled to – but with airline luggage limits in mind, we resisted.

Address: Church St, Inverness IV1 1EY
Opening hours: Everyday, 10 am – 5.30 pm
Facebook page: LeakeysBookshop

The Watermill – Aberfeldy

The Aberfeldy Watermill Bookshop, Gallery & Cafe is located in a former oatmeal mill in the Perthshire town of Aberfeldy. One of its claims to fame is that it was included in the New Yorker book of 75 Greatest Bookstores in the World.

As its full name suggests, The Watermill is part bookshop, part gallery and part cafe. Plus there is a lovely homewares store right next door which contains lots of items perfect to furnish your home in ‘coorie style’ (Scotland’s answer to hygge). The bookshop has a wide range of titles including a great Scottish and local interest section, and plenty of books and maps for walkers.

The cafe looked lovely and I could imagine visitors wiling away several hours browsing books and retiring to the cafe for sustenance (if you weren’t on the whistlestop tour of the Highlands that we were!)

Address: Mill Street, Aberfeldy, PH15 2BG
Opening hours: Open seven days a week 10am-5pm, (11am-5pm Sunday)
Website: www.aberfeldywatermill.com

Ullapool Bookshop

It was raining the day we were in Ullapool, a small village on the shore of Loch Broom in North-west Scotland, so ducking into The Ullapool Bookshop was a welcome respite from the drizzle.

The independent bookshop is very close to the Harbour and Ferry Terminal and next-door to the Captain’s Cabin (giftshop) and Lochbroom Hardware, all of which are owned by the same family run business.

The Ullapool Bookshop specialises in books about the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and outdoor pursuits such as hill-walking and Munro-bagging and also has a great range of general non-fiction and fiction books. Once again we found many great maps! We’re big fans of maps.

Address: Quay Street, Ullapool, IV26 2UE
Opening hours: Open seven days a week, but hours vary seasonally (check the website)
Website: www.ullapoolbookshop.co.uk

Young’s Interesting Books – Glasgow

The Facebook page for Young’s Interesting Books describes it as:

“A wee shop, with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Apart from the bulk of the proprietor, that is.”

There were certainly many quality, rare books inside its wee shop walls, including some very old titles. The proprietors buy and sell general second-hand and antiquarian books on a wide range of subjects and in many genres. The name of the shop describes it perfectly.

The selection of second-hand and antiquarian books is an eclectic one – there’s something for everyone on these shelves. I was particularly taken with their range of old Annuals – it prompted memories of my brother being sent an ‘Oor Wullie’ Annual for Christmas for many years in our childhood.

Address: 18 Skirving St, Shawlands, Glasgow G41 3AB
Opening hours: Seven days a week, but hours vary (check Facebook page)
Facebook page: Youngs-Interesting-Books

Lighthouse – Edinburgh

Lighthouse is Edinburgh’s radical bookshop located near Edinburgh University. It is an independent community bookshop on the radical left – politically engaged and socially conscious. The website says:

We celebrate diversity of thought and expression, championing voices from the margins.

The shop contains about 10,000 titles across most genres, with a focus on radical, left wing and Scottish politics, feminism, revolutionary history, environmentalism, LGBT+ writing, poetry and translated fiction.

In addition, the bookshop runs several events throughout the year, including the Book Fringe in August – which is a free festival of daytime events which runs alongside the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Writers talk about ideas in the bookshop during 40 minute events, at 1pm, almost every day during August.

Address: 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 10am – 8pm, Sundays & Bank Holidays
11:30am – 5pm
Website: lighthousebookshop.com

The Highland Bookshop – Fort William

Fort William is a bustling tourist town during the month of August and we enjoyed traversing its pedestrian High Street mall after we’d had dinner in one of its many restaurants.

The ground floor of Highland Books has an extensive range of new book titles across all subjects, but it was upstairs which really interested us – the first floor hosts the ‘Big Outdoor Lounge’ – maps, guides and travel books about Scotland and a carefully curated secondhand books department which contains a selection of Scottish history, local history, outdoors, nature, trains, and some fiction. There was also some antiquarian titles.

The Highland Bookshop is a sister bookshop of The Watermill in Aberfeldy.

Address: 60 High Street, Fort William, PH33 6AH
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 9.30 – 6pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm (later opening hours over summer months- check the website)
Website: highlandbookshop.com

Highflight Books – Dingwall

We literally stumbled onto Highflight Books in Dingwall when we took a detour into the town as we were desperate for a cup of tea! The cafe we chose had a coach tour group in and they told us to come back in 20 minutes when it would be much quieter. So we wandered along the main street and found Highflight Books.

This quirky bookshop specialises in secondhand aviation books with over 2,000 titles covering gliding, aviation in the north, military and other aspects of flight and flying. Hence ‘Highflight’. There’s also a huge range of fiction and non-fiction books. I was quite taken with some of the Scottish law books in the legal section, including titles such as The Law of Husband and Wife in Scotland, Third Edition.

The staff were charming and more than happy to assist us find various titles throughout the shop.

Address: 2 High St, Dingwall IV15 9HL, United Kingdom
Opening hours: No idea! Maybe call ahead… +44 7580 291856
Unofficial Facebook page: Highflight-Books-High-Street-Dingwall

Oxfam Bookshop – Stockbridge, Edinburgh

Walking along Stockbridge’s Raeburn Street in Edinburgh we were struck by how many charity shops there were – and how appealing they all looked. When we saw one specifically dedicated to books we were in there in a flash.

At home in Australia, I’m a big fan of op shops for book purchases. I can find nearly-new titles in my neighbourhood charity shops for a fraction of the price of buying them new. Plus, it’s good for the planet to re-use books, so it’s a feel good purchase. But I’ve yet to find a Melbourne op shop that specialises in just books.

The Oxfam Book Shop in Stockbridge, Edinburgh does exactly that. It has an excellent range of quality second hand titles and also a staff who really know their books. And apparently it’s not the only specialist charity bookshop in Scotland – there are several others. You can even shop Oxfam books on-line (including valuable, signed and rare books) at: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books .

Address: 25 Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, EH4 1HU
Opening hours: Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 5.30pm, Saturday:
10.00am – 5.30pm, Sunday: 11.00am – 5.00pm.
Website: www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops/oxfam-bookshop-raeburn-place

John Kay’s – Edinburgh

We were taken to John Kay’s in Edinburgh’s beautiful Victoria Street while we were doing a Harry Potter walking tour of Edinburgh. The story goes that Victoria Street was the inspiration to J.K. Rowling for Diagon Alley – which would make John Kay’s the Flourish and Blotts of Victoria Street.

My own Harry Potter connection to this bookstore, is that it is where I bought a copy of The Philosopher’s Stone translated into Scots as a gift for my Mum. There’s an assortment of books, gifts, prints and cards etc in this shop.

Address: 8 Victoria St, Edinburgh, EH1 2HG
Opening hours: Seven days a week, but hours vary
Facebook page: johnkayshop

The Bookshop – Wigtown

Okay, so I’m cheating a bit by including this in a round-up of the bookshops M and I visited…as we didn’t actually go to this one together – but I did visit it while in Scotland in 2018….and M and I attended a session at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival where the owner of The Book Shop, Shaun Bythell spoke about his latest memoir – Confessions of a Bookseller, the sequel to Diary of a Bookseller.

He shared the session with Tim Waterstone, founder of the chain bookshops, Waterstones and it was a hoot. Very entertaining, and made us wish we had time for a quick trip south to visit The Bookshop. Instead, we had to content ourselves with following his acerbic wit via The Bookshop’s Facebook page.

The Bookshop in Wigtown (Scotland’s National Booktown) claims to be the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland, with over a mile of shelving supporting roughly 100,000 books. It also boasts a resident cat, Captain.

On the Facebook page, the description of The Bookshop says:

We have about 100,000 titles in stock, but probably not the one you’re looking for. You know, your aunt gave it to you when you were a child and it had a red cover but you can’t remember the title or the author. It had a picture of a rabbit on the back. If we work out what it is and we tell you we don’t have it in stock, just keep telling us about it and we will, of course, magically make it appear from thin air.

What’s not to love about that?

Address: 17 North Main Street,Wigtown, DG8 9HL
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 9am to 5pm
Facebook page: thebookshopwigtown