Wigtown Book Festival has commissioned a new book celebrating the salt marshes that have shaped the history of Scotland’s National Book Town.
The Saltmarsh Library, a work of creative nonfiction to be published in 2021, will be written by one of the country’s most exciting young authors, the Saltire Award-winning Dumfries-based nature writer Stephen Rutt.
The book is part of the wider Solway to the Sea project, which has been funded by Scottish Natural Heritage’s Plunge In! Coasts and Waters Community Fund. The fund was established by SNH to help community groups across Scotland celebrate the Year of Coasts and Waters.
Solway to The Sea will be a central programme strand at this year’s Wigtown Book Festival online (25 Sept-4 Oct).
The salt marshes (see fact sheet) are one of south-west Scotland’s greatest natural assets and have witnessed dramatic events with the drowning of the Wigtown Martyrs.
Sometimes known as The Inks, they are now part of the 2,845-hectare Wigtown Bay Local Nature Reserve, sitting within the Unesco Biosphere. The reserve hosts three species of migrant geese and overwintering whooper swans that migrate in from the arctic. The area is also special for its fish species with sparling and twait shad breeding there, and eelgrass beds that are important wildlife habitats.
The commission comes at a busy moment for 28-year-old Rutt. A paperback version of his first book, a memoir called The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds, is released on 4 June by Elliott & Thompson. He will also appear in an online event organised by Wigtown Festival Company on Wednesday 10 June.
Stephen Rutt said: “Like a library, nature is a great repository of stories, experiences and cultures. I hope the new book will communicate these tales and give a sense of the place.
“The saltmarshes are very special, with their shifting of sediments that suddenly stabilise with vegetation like glasswort and samphire. Being there and watching the tides come in and hide the landscape – making it a seascape – and seeing the water recede to reveal land again is something I find hypnotic on a deep, emotional level.
“My research will be partly cultural, partly scientific. It’s the blending of these strands that I focus on in my writing.”
Adrian Turpin, Wigtown Book Festival’s creative director, said: “The book and the wider project aim to help more people discover the very special character of this place which exists between land and sea. Stephen is a truly engaging writer, and someone who knows and loves Dumfries and Galloway, so he’s absolutely ideal to write this book.”
This year it is hoped there will be guided tours of the marshes (physical or filmed – depending on the Covid-19 situation). These will be run by Freelance Ranger and 2019 Dumfries and Galloway Life Environmental Champion Elizabeth Tindal, who is a consultant on the project.
Elizabeth said: “I love the whole of Wigtown Bay – it’s one of my favourite places in the entire world. There’s such a sense of space and it’s full of beauty, birds and sea. I’m really looking forward to sharing this with everyone.”
SNH Chief Executive Francesca Osowska said: “We had a fantastic response to this fund and each of our 24 successful projects were chosen because they demonstrate just how much there is to celebrate about Scotland’s wonderful coastlines and waterways, their landscapes, biodiversity and wildlife.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the Solway to the Sea project progress and am sure that its creativity and enthusiasm will engage and connect more people with our coasts and waters and secure a real and lasting legacy for the themed year in the local community.”
