Independent bookshops in Scotland: all 202, mapped by region

How many independent bookshops are there in Scotland?

There are over 200 independent bookshops in Scotland, from Galloway to Shetland.

Edinburgh has the most by a distance, with 32 in the city itself, and Glasgow is not far behind with 28. After that it is Wigtown, which has nine bookshops in a village of under a thousand people and has been Scotland’s National Book Town since 1998. The islands hold 19 between them, and the most remote are a ferry ride from anywhere – Colonsay, Birsay in Orkney and a former fish hatchery at Weisdale in Shetland.

Romance and romantasy bookshops in Scotland

Romantasy – romance crossed with fantasy, made famous by Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, has done more for bookselling in the last five years than anything else, and Scotland has shops built on it. There are only a handful, so here they all are. Filter the map by Romance & romantasy.

• Book Lovers Bookshop, The Meadows, Edinburgh – the UK’s first bricks-and-mortar romance bookshop, opened 2024, and named UK Independent Bookshop of the Year 2026. Romance in all its forms, romantasy included, behind a bright pink frontage.
• Flirtatious Fiction, Ayr – romance only, with special orders for the latest spicy release and Rebound Reads, an in-store trade-in that takes your pre-loved romance for cash or credit. Also runs Flirt Fest, a romance readers’ weekend along the coast at Prestwick.
• Morally Grey Bookstore, Oatlands, Glasgow – contemporary, fantasy and dark romance plus special editions, in an industrial unit by the M74. Opening hours are limited, so check before you go.
• Spice & Steam, Thornwood, Glasgow – the West End’s romance shop, at the Thornwood end of Dumbarton Road. No website yet, so Instagram is where to check the hours.

If you want the reading rather than the shopping, Fantasy Bookclub Scotland runs romantasy nights in Glasgow and at Daydreams Bookshop in Milngavie – Throne of Glass, ACOTAR and Fourth Wing, mostly.

Independent bookshops in Scotland by region

Every bookshop on the map, listed by region with a line on each. Tap a book on the map above for the address and directions.

Independent bookshops in Edinburgh

Edinburgh has more independent bookshops than any other city in Scotland, and they are walkable in clusters. West Port is the obvious one – four secondhand shops in a row, which is as close as Britain gets to a book street. Beyond that, the specialists are the thing: science fiction, cookbooks, romance, French comics, children’s books, radical politics, each with its own shop.

• Armchair Books, West Port, Edinburgh – Floor-to-ceiling teetering stacks in two cramped rooms; strictly no new books. Renovated for accessibility in 2026 with a new layout.
• McNaughtan’s Bookshop & Gallery, Broughton, Edinburgh – Calls itself Scotland’s oldest secondhand and antiquarian bookshop (est. 1957), in an A-listed basement with an attached gallery.
• Edinburgh Books, West Port, Edinburgh – Four basement rooms of wide-ranging stock, formerly West Port Books, with a mounted water buffalo head called Clarence. One room is sublet to Alba Musick for sheet music.
• Till’s Bookshop, The Meadows, Edinburgh – Trading since 1985 overlooking the Meadows; one of the city’s longest-running secondhand bookshops.
• Main Point Books, Bread Street, Edinburgh – Strong on Scottish and labour history, feminism and post-colonial studies; also sells 19th-century prints and publishes its own poetry.
• The Gently Mad, Canonmills, Edinburgh – A working bookbindery as well as a shop, offering fine leather bindings, slipcases and bible restoration, alongside natural history and illustrated children’s stock.
• John Kay’s Shop, Victoria Street, Edinburgh – Small, carefully curated stock of secondhand and antique books on one of the Old Town’s most photographed streets.
• Peter Bell Books, West Port, Edinburgh – Antiquarian and scholarly stock, trading since 1974. By appointment only: the website states the shop is currently only open by appointment.
• Cooper Hay Rare Books (Edinburgh), New Town, Edinburgh – New Edinburgh branch of the long-established Glasgow antiquarian dealer. No published opening hours; contact first.
• Choose Books, Newhaven, Edinburgh – Opened late February 2026 with a Trainspotting theme, run by Shaun Baskind (formerly Ballard Books, South Africa). Secondhand books alongside LPs, VHS, comics and vintage toys, with coffee from Ride and Grind.
• The Portobello Bookshop, Portobello, Edinburgh – Opened 2019 in a 3,000 sq ft unit a street back from the beach; busy author-event and book-club programme, signed editions, Real Living Wage employer.
• Topping & Company Booksellers, Blenheim Place, Edinburgh – 4,000 sq ft in a converted bank with ladders and galleries and a heavy events programme. Family-owned independent with five UK branches, not a chain in the Waterstones sense.
• Golden Hare Books, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – Tightly curated, with hand-written shelf cards, strong art, design and children’s sections and a back-room event space.
• Lighthouse, Southside, Edinburgh – Queer-owned, women-led radical bookshop with around 10,000 titles on left and Scottish politics, feminism, LGBT+ writing and translated fiction. Runs the Book Fringe in August and the Radical Book Fair in November.
• The Edinburgh Bookshop, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh – Long-established Bruntsfield independent and Scotland’s Bookshop of the Year 2018, with a strong children’s section and a busy author-events programme.
• Typewronger Books, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh – Not-for-profit CIC open 11am to 9pm daily so you can sit and read, with an in-house Riso print studio and writers in residence.
• Argonaut Books, Leith Walk, Edinburgh – Leith’s genre specialist: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance and independent-press titles.
• Ginger and Pickles Children’s Bookshop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – Children’s-only shop covering babies to young adults, with stationery for aspiring writers and illustrators and a school and teacher ordering service. Two doors from Golden Hare.
• Rare Birds Book Shop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – The bricks-and-mortar home of the Rare Birds subscription box, stocking fiction by women writers.
• Book Lovers Bookshop, The Meadows, Edinburgh – The UK’s first bricks-and-mortar romance bookshop, with a bright pink frontage; named UK Independent Bookshop of the Year 2026.
• The Cookbook Shop, Broughton, Edinburgh – Describes itself as Scotland’s only dedicated culinary bookshop, a few doors from McNaughtan’s.
• Transreal Fiction, Greyfriars, Edinburgh – Dedicated science fiction and fantasy shop near Greyfriars, in these premises since 2011.
• La Belle Adventure, Leith Walk, Edinburgh – French and European comics and graphic novels in French and English, from Casterman, Tardi and Blacksad to SelfMadeHero, Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly. Run by a couple who moved from France to open it; limited hours (Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday).
• Fruitmarket Bookshop, Market Street, Edinburgh – The gallery’s own art bookshop: hard-to-find texts on typography, art theory, design, architecture and fashion, 10% student discount, will order in. Cafe and bookshop open 9am to 6pm daily, longer than the gallery spaces.
• Edinburgh Community Bookshop, Leith, Edinburgh – Entirely donated stock, deliberately cheap; profits go to a different local charity each month. Volunteer-run, open seven days and until 7pm on Thursdays.
• The Amnesty Bookshop, Marchmont, Edinburgh – Volunteer-run since 2016 and stocked from Marchmont donations, with good Scottish-author and children’s sections.
• The Bethany Bookshop, Broughton, Edinburgh – Bethany Christian Trust’s dedicated book shop, separate from its general shop at 32B next door; proceeds fund homelessness work.
• Oxfam Bookshop, Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – Books-only Oxfam (Oxfam runs a separate music shop nearby); reliably good academic and literary donations from the Stockbridge catchment.
• Oxfam Books & Music, Nicolson Street, Southside, Edinburgh – Student-quarter branch, strong on academic texts plus secondhand vinyl and CDs.
• Oxfam Bookshop, Morningside Road, Morningside, Edinburgh – A books-only Oxfam on Morningside Road; worth it for hardback fiction and art books.
• Shelter Edinburgh Stockbridge Book Shop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – Shelter Scotland’s books-only shop, with level entrance and wheelchair access.
• St Columba’s Hospice Canonmills Book Shop, Canonmills, Edinburgh – The hospice’s dedicated book shop (its other Edinburgh shops are general).

Independent bookshops in the Lothians

East Lothian is excellent for bookshoppers. Haddington, East Linton and North Berwick each have one worth the trip, and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club at Aberlady keeps a secondhand natural history shop that birdwatchers come a long way for.

• Kesley’s Bookshop, Haddington – Haddington’s long-standing high-street independent; a current National Book Tokens and Hive stockist.
• Night Owl Books, East Linton – Village bookshop with live events, adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction, and gifts from Scottish independents.
• St Columba’s Hospice Care North Berwick Cafe & Bookshop, North Berwick – Opened 3 June 2025 in a former gallery with over 5,000 donated books; good cakes, modern paperback fiction mostly 2.50, strong children’s section.
• Scottish Ornithologists’ Club Bookshop, Waterston House, Aberlady – Hundreds of donated ornithology and natural-history titles, including New Naturalist and Bannerman volumes, sold to fund the SOC; also optics and wildlife art.
• Far From The Madding Crowd, Linlithgow – An indie bookshop with a bit on the side: general new stock plus Ordnance Survey maps and gifts; the only full independent new-book shop found in West Lothian.

Independent bookshops in Glasgow

Glasgow’s bookshops split neatly in three. Kelvinbridge is the secondhand quarter, where Voltaire & Rousseau, Caledonia Books and Thistle Books sit within a few hundred yards of each other. The city centre and East End hold the specialists and the radicals. The Southside – Govanhill especially – has the newest and most interesting shops in the city, most of them opened in the last ten years.

• Hyndland Bookshop, Hyndland, Glasgow – Started 1982 by two former librarians, in this shop since 1997; small curated fiction/poetry/travel range, children’s section, resident dog.
• Oxfam Bookshop Byres Road, West End, Glasgow – Launched 25+ years ago with help from Bernard MacLaverty.
• Caledonia Books, Kelvinbridge, Glasgow – Family-run since 1986; out-of-print and antiquarian stock, a large folio collection downstairs, and staff who will source titles for you.
• Voltaire & Rousseau, Kelvinbridge, Glasgow – Glasgow’s oldest secondhand bookshop (1972), books stacked floor-to-ceiling in a lane off Gibson Street, with a resident cat.
• Thistle Books, Kelvinbridge, Glasgow – Family-run since 1998; unusually well-organised, strong on Scottish literature and history, and runs a book-finding service.
• Herrigan Books, West End, Glasgow – Opened August 2025; vintage Penguins, old magazines, historical maps of Glasgow and the Clyde Valley, local artwork, stock from 25p.
• Cooper Hay Rare Books, City Centre, Glasgow – ABA/ILAB antiquarian dealer marking 40 years in 2026, on the first floor above Bath Street: fine bindings, Scottish and Celtic antiquarian, early travel and illustrated books, viewed by appointment as much as by walk-in.
• Gaelic Books Council (Comhairle nan Leabhraichean), Partick, Glasgow – Scotland’s only dedicated Gaelic-language bookshop; Mon-Fri 10-1 and 2-5, with in-store events.
• Free Presbyterian Bookroom, Woodlands, Glasgow – Walk-in Reformed/Christian theology bookroom; open late (to 7.30pm) on Wednesdays.
• Good Press, City Centre / Calton, Glasgow – Workers’ co-operative that is at once a bookshop, risograph print service, bookmaking studio and gallery; zines and artists’ publications you won’t find elsewhere.
• Bigglestones Books, Merchant City, Glasgow – New Merchant City shop built around Scottish fiction, folklore and history plus emerging voices; runs poetry nights.
• Chapter One (Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland), Glasgow Cross, Glasgow – Opened end of October 2025 as CHSS’s first bookshop. Mostly donated stock, but managers also buy in indie-press titles such as Charco Press.
• Oxfam Bookshop Royal Exchange Square, Merchant City, Glasgow – Central dedicated book branch, Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-4.
• Calton Books, Calton, by the Barras, Glasgow – Radical/left bookshop beside the Barras: anarchism, labour history, Irish republicanism, Spanish Civil War, plus badges and posters.
• Sector 7 Books, Saltmarket, Glasgow – Glasgow’s horror, sci-fi and fantasy specialist: genre classics, new releases, rare and limited first editions.
• Category Is Books, Govanhill, Glasgow – Independent LGBTQIA+ bookshop since 2018: new and secondhand queer books, zines and comics, a Pay-It-Forward book fund and queer writing, horror and baking groups.
• Aye-Aye Books, Govanhill, Glasgow – Radical/art bookshop and Alliance of Radical Booksellers member, now in the Broadside space.
• Tell it Slant, Govanhill, Glasgow – Poetry-only bookshop inside Locavore, with regular open mics.
• Unity Books, Govanhill, Glasgow – Bills itself as Britain’s biggest socialist bookshop: 6,000+ secondhand books, pamphlets and periodicals, some over 100 years old, in a B-listed former church. Saturdays only.
• Oxfam Books & Music Victoria Road, Govanhill, Glasgow – Books plus records, CDs and DVDs; the Southside’s main dedicated charity book branch.
• Burning House Books, Crosshill / Govanhill, Glasgow – Art, experimental writing, counterculture and queer history; Cultured named it the UK’s best small bookshop in 2025.
• Mount Florida Books, Mount Florida, Glasgow – Fiction, poetry, politics, nature writing and cookery with a busy programme (Men’s Reading Circle, writing group, fiction book club, pot-luck dinners) and profits going into local literacy work.
• Young’s Interesting Books, Shawlands, Glasgow – Long-standing Shawlands secondhand and antiquarian shop with eclectic, genuinely odd stock; buys as well as sells.
• Galilee Books, Battlefield / Langside, Glasgow – Christian bookshop opened May 2024: Bibles, adult and children’s titles, cards; will order in and discounts multiple copies.
• Morally Grey Bookstore, Oatlands, Glasgow – Romance specialist (contemporary, fantasy, dark romance, special editions) with author events and a book club, in an industrial unit by the M74.
• The Wee Comic Shop, Shawlands, Glasgow – Small independent comic and graphic-novel shop in Shawlands. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.
• City Centre Comics, West End, Glasgow – Independent comic shop in the Ruthven Lane arcade, same lane as Herrigan Books. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.
• Red Hot Comics, Castlemilk, Glasgow – Independent comic shop in Castlemilk. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.
• Spice & Steam, Thornwood, Glasgow – Romance bookshop at the Thornwood end of Dumbarton Road, west of Partick. No website yet – it posts as @spiceandsteam26 on Instagram and TikTok, which is where to check the hours before you go.

Bookshops near Glasgow: Paisley, Biggar and the Clyde towns

The towns around Glasgow are better served than you might expect, from Bearsden and Milngavie in the north to Paisley, Gourock and Biggar. Several double as cafes, and there is a cluster of comic shops across Lanarkshire.

• The Bookmonger, Bearsden – Bookshop crossed with a cheese and wine bar: British and Scottish artisan cheeses with wine pairings, open until 9pm Fri/Sat, plus an author-event space.
• Daydreams Bookshop, Milngavie – Staff-picked stock weighted to local voices and indie publishers, a book-recycling scheme giving GBP 1 credit for a returned purchase, literary lunches and children’s story-and-yoga sessions.
• Caffeinated Escapism Bookstore, Alexandria – Opened 2025 near Loch Lomond; coffee, a small event space, author events and a monthly book club.
• Book Nook @ The Hub, Helensburgh – Volunteer-run community secondhand bookshop and jigsaw shop; open Mon, Tue, Wed and Sat.
• Abbey Books, Paisley – Roughly 40,000 books across history, poetry, art, music and drama, plus a sheet-music section.
• The Ginger Cat Bookshop, Bridge of Weir – Children’s and YA specialist: picture books to teen, dyslexia-friendly titles, age-banded subscriptions, school book fairs and author events (O’Hagan, Brookmyre).
• The Wee Bookshop (Ardgowan Hospice), Gourock – Hospice-run dedicated bookshop on Gourock’s main street, also records and jigsaws.
• The GLO Bookshop, Motherwell – Long-established Christian bookshop with a secondhand section and access to 75,000+ Christian titles; the only dedicated bookshop in central Motherwell.
• The Biggar Bookshop (formerly Atkinson-Pryce Books), Biggar – Rebranded; atkinson-pryce.co.uk now redirects here. Former British Book Awards regional nominee; runs a book group and works with local schools and the library.
• Comicrazy, Paisley – Independent comic shop specialising in graphic novels, manga and children’s books, and serving coffee. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.
• The Last Outpost Comics, Airdrie – Independent comic shop in Airdrie town centre. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.
• Castle Comics UK, Cumbernauld – Independent comic shop in Cumbernauld town centre. Comic retailer rather than general bookshop.

Independent bookshops in Stirling, Falkirk and Argyll

A wide spread, this one, from Stirling and the Hillfoots villages out along the Argyll coast to Campbeltown and Lochgilphead. Callander and Alva are both worth a detour for secondhand, and Dollar, Dunoon and Benderloch all combine books with somewhere to sit.

• Argyll Book Centre, Lochgilphead – Independent general bookshop trading in the town centre for over 30 years; doubles as Lochgilphead’s tourist information point and carries a strong local-interest section of Argyll books, guides and OS/Harvey-type maps alongside stationery and toys.
• Bookpoint, Dunoon – Cowal’s general bookshop, and the only shop in Dunoon stocking Warhammer figures and games under a Games Workshop partnership, so the back of the shop is miniatures and paints rather than books. Runs a special-order service against wholesaler databases covering out-of-print and hard-to-find titles, and hosts author events.
• The Old Bookshelf, Campbeltown – Around 20,000 secondhand and out-of-print books in a shop whose fittings are over a century old, with deep sections on Kintyre, Campbeltown and Argyll local history plus maritime, Scottish military history and archaeology.
• Ben Lora Cafe & Bookshop, Benderloch – Family-run licensed cafe with a bookshop attached, on the A828 just north of Connel bridge – a useful stop on the Oban-Appin road.
• The Book Nook (Stirling), Stirling – Small independent bookshop and coffee shop a couple of minutes off Stirling’s Thistles end of town, mixing handpicked new and secondhand stock with toasted bagels, homemade cake and hot drinks, so you can sit in with a book.
• Stirling Books, Stirling – Secondhand shop that specialises in rare and antiquarian material, with a sideline in unread titles from Scottish authors and small Scottish publishers. Short hours (roughly 11-4, 10-3 Fridays) and these have changed before, so worth checking the day you go.
• Oxfam Bookshop Stirling, Stirling – A dedicated Oxfam books-and-music shop rather than a general charity shop: mainly secondhand books with a declared specialism in Scottish books, literature and history, plus a separate classical section among the CDs and vinyl.
• King’s Bookshop, Callander – Antiquarian and secondhand shop strong on Scottish history, natural history and poetry, known for hand bindings by Ian W King; it is also the home of Diehard Publishers and the Poetry Scotland broadsheet, and ran the Callander Poetry Weekend each September.
• The Wee Bookshop, Dollar – A one-room shop by the shore focused tightly on Arran, mountains, walking, wildlife, environment and maps, run by the publisher of The Arran Almanac.
• Guid Reads, Alva – Hillfoots secondhand bookshop that crowdfunded over £48,000 in 2021 to buy its own premises and stay open; its running theme is tracing the previous owners of inscribed secondhand books and trying to return them to their original homes.
• Inkspot & Silverleaf Booksellers, Bo’ness – Trading in central Bo’ness since 2008 and twice named in The Independent’s Top 50 Bookshops; strong children’s and adult new-book range, signed editions and a local-interest/Central Scotland section, plus National Book Tokens, cards and stationery and a Libro.fm audiobook partnership.
• Seagull Trust Bookshop, Falkirk – A genuine charity bookshop, not a charity shop with a book shelf: new and pre-loved stock sorted by genre over two floors of the High Street, with all profits funding Seagull Trust Cruises’ free canal boat trips for disabled and isolated people. Named Best Online Book Retailer 2025 at the SME Scottish Enterprise Awards.
• Justice Comics, Stirling – Long-standing independent comics and graphic-novel retailer in the Victorian Stirling Arcade, trading since the 1990s.

Independent bookshops in Fife

St Andrews anchors Fife, with Topping’s three floors and the antiquarian Bouquiniste a few streets apart. Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Cupar and Kinross all have one too, and most of them will make you a coffee.

• Topping & Company Booksellers of St Andrews, St Andrews – Floor-to-ceiling oak shelving holding roughly 45,000 titles with many first and signed editions, and a heavy author-event programme with talks listed through to January 2027.
• Bouquiniste, St Andrews – Small antiquarian shop specialising in Scottish and arts subjects, with old postcards too.
• Barnardo’s Book Store, St Andrews – A book-only Barnardo’s branch rather than a general charity shop: strong academic stock, a good Scottish section and sheet music.
• Courtyard Books, Cupar – Mixes new stock with secondhand and will order in new titles.
• Hanselled Books, Burntisland – Antiquarian stock heavy on Scottish history – Fife & Kinross, Scots Law, maritime, railways, maps and Folio Society.
• Fife Forge, Kirkcaldy – Scottish art, books and collectables with a Kirkcaldy and Fife focus, plus the free Lang Toun Little Museum in the back room that the shop’s profits fund.
• Twice Told Tales, Dunfermline – Opened January 2026: thousands of secondhand books from paperbacks to antiquarian, new work by local authors and makers, and Fairtrade coffee and traybakes.
• Little Shop of Heroes, Dunfermline – Comics and graphic novels across Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly; also runs Dunfermline Comic Con and the Dunfermline International Comic Festival.
• Read & Relax, Kinross – Opened November 2024: new and good-quality secondhand books, a large children’s section, locally roasted coffee and book clubs.

Independent bookshops in Dundee and Angus

Dundee’s shops are mostly in the West End around Perth Road, with Broughty Ferry a short run east. Angus adds Montrose and Arbroath, including a National Trust bookshop in the stables at House of Dun.

• The Bookhouse, Broughty Ferry – Family-run since 2017, strong on signed and indie-exclusive editions with sprayed edges, romantasy, manga and graphic novels, plus audiobooks and children’s sound books.
• Book Attic, Dundee – Small old-school West End shop that is strong on academic social sciences, Scottish history and Dundee/Tayside local interest.
• Oxfam Books & Music Dundee, Dundee – A books-and-music-only Oxfam: fiction, history, Scottish titles, academic and cookery, plus vinyl, CDs, cassettes and sheet music.
• Barnabas Christian Bookshop, Dundee – Set up after CLC Dundee closed in 2020; mainly new Christian titles with a sizeable secondhand theology, Bible-study and pastoral-care section.
• Lost Galaxy, Dundee – Opened February 2026: vintage and modern comics, graphic novels, tabletop games and miniatures, with a sit-down browsing area.
• Ink & Quill, Montrose – Montrose’s independent new-book shop, open seven days, running author events and bookish classes.
• The Learning Tree Partnership bookshop, Arbroath – Charity bookshop (SCIO SC046044) with books priced by size and condition from 50p and a large children’s section; staff take requests and ring you if a title comes in.
• The Wee Bookshop, House of Dun (National Trust for Scotland), Montrose – A standalone secondhand bookshop in one of the estate’s courtyard buildings, set up and run by the Trust’s Angus Members’ Group.

Independent bookshops in Perthshire and Kinross

Blairgowrie has three, which is remarkable for a town that size, and Pitlochry has both a station bookshop on the platform and a polar exploration specialist. The Watermill in Aberfeldy is the one most people make the trip for.

• Oxfam Books & Music Perth, Perth – The only dedicated bookshop left in Perth city centre: Scottish-focused stock from modern fiction to collectable antiquarian, plus folk and Scottish music on vinyl and CD.
• Adventure Into Books, Blairgowrie – New books, board games and puzzles with speciality coffee and tea, dog friendly; Mon 11-4, Tue-Sat 10-5.
• Booklore Community Bookshop, Blairgowrie – Volunteer-run since 2011 as part of Blairgowrie & Rattray Development Trust (charity SC039702), with all proceeds going to town projects.
• The Watermill (Aberfeldy Watermill Bookshop), Aberfeldy – A converted mill housing a bookshop strong on local interest, Scottish history, nature and poetry with a separate children’s room, a cafe, and an art gallery upstairs.
• The Birnam Reader, Birnam – Secondhand books plus classical CDs, with coffee and homemade cakes, open Fri-Mon 11:00-19:00 when other shops are shut.
• Pitlochry Station Bookshop, Pitlochry – Volunteer-run secondhand bookshop spread across the station’s old newspaper stall, stationmaster’s office and salt store; ScotRail gives the premises rent-free and it had raised over 350,000 pounds for six charities by 2021.
• Glacier Books, Pitlochry – Claims Scotland’s largest stock of mountaineering, mountain-travel and polar-exploration books, new through to antiquarian. Visitors welcome at most times but call first – not a walk-in shopfront.
• River Thoughtful Fishing Books, Blairgowrie – Specialist secondhand and antiquarian fishing books, maps and prints; ring ahead.

Independent bookshops in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

Aberdeen’s shops sit close together around Union Street and Old Aberdeen. Out in the shire, Banchory, Ballater, Ellon, Huntly, Banff and Stonehaven all have one, and Deeside Books in Ballater is the place for mountaineering and Scottish topography.

• Somerville Books, Aberdeen – Opened July 2025 by Christie Murphie, who grew up in her mum’s Wigtown bookshop and funded the shop with her grandmother’s inheritance. New releases plus pre-loved stock, a strong children’s section and a customer reading challenge.
• Books and Beans, Aberdeen – Fairtrade table-service cafe on the ground floor with roughly 10,000 used books upstairs. Hosts a book club (first Thursday, 7pm) and a poetry night (last Thursday, 6.30pm).
• Old Aberdeen Bookshop, Aberdeen – Established 1997 beside the university and self-described as Aberdeen’s only commercial second-hand bookshop. Academic books and literature, plus antiquarian, Scottish, natural history, theology and military titles.
• Asylum Books & Games, Aberdeen – Comics and graphic novels specialist with 15,000+ back issues catalogued, plus original art, statues and posters. Runs regular creator signings.
• Oxfam Books & Music, Aberdeen – A dedicated Oxfam books-and-music branch, not a general charity shop, tucked just off Union Street.
• Mercat Bookshop, Aberdeen – Volunteer-run on the Castlegate for Voluntary Service Aberdeen. Books plus vinyl, CDs, DVDs, OS maps and old magazines; cash only.
• But n’ Ben Books, Stonehaven – Opened mid-2025 by Jane, who spent about 12 years working in Scottish bookshops. Noticeable gothic-horror leaning, and she hosts small events for musicians and writers.
• Yeadon’s of Banchory, Banchory – Sister shop to the 1887 Elgin original, opened December 2007. Books, stationery and fountain pens, and it will chase signed and special editions.
• Deeside Books, Ballater – About 10,000 out-of-print and antiquarian titles, strongest on Scottish and local history. Lost roughly 10,000 books to the Storm Frank flood of 2015 and rebuilt.
• Better Read Books, Ellon – Family-run shop mixing new and secondhand books with gifts, and it runs Em & Spark’s Ellon Book Club.
• Orb’s Community Bookshop, Huntly – Community-run with profits reinvested in the shop and local projects. Unusually for the region it keeps dedicated Doric and Gaelic sections alongside Scottish local history and genealogy.
• Books Abroad, Banff – Dedicated secondhand bookshop run by the Books Abroad charity, which ships donated books to Africa from its Rhynie warehouse. Trustee Gary will try to source specific titles. Cash only, Mon-Sat 10am-4pm.
• Maggie Law Museum Second Hand Bookshop, Gourdon – Donation-stocked bookshop raising funds for the Maggie Law lifeboat museum on the harbour.

Independent bookshops in Moray and Speyside

Elgin, Forres, Dufftown, Grantown and Nairn each have a shop, and two of them come with coffee. Logie Steading near Forres is the pick if you like a rummage.

• Yeadon’s of Elgin, Elgin – Founded in 1887 by James Dawson Yeadon and billed as one of Scotland’s oldest continuously trading bookshops; refitted in 2007. Books, stationery and pens.
• Beinn – Coffee & Books, Dufftown – Opened June 2025 by Sam Matthews, who moved up from Southampton. Around 2,000 curated titles, speciality coffee from Conval Coffee Roasters and Lettoch Farm, and a wood burner in winter. Named after Ben Rinnes, the hill above the town.
• Under the Leaves, Forres – Small, colourfully cosy shop with new fiction, classics, poetry, SF/fantasy, crime and children’s, plus nature, biography and arts sections, cards, stationery and board games. Now new books only.
• Logie Steading Bookshop, Forres – Inside the Logie Steading visitor centre in the Findhorn valley, so you get bookshop, cafe and walled garden in one stop. Mostly secondhand (crime, cookery, nature) plus OS maps and a small Scottish new-books range. Also buys books.
• The Bookmark, Grantown-on-Spey – Marjory Marshall has personally selected every title since 2007. Highland council area (Strathspey).
• Nairn Books, Nairn – New books for adults and children, cards and gifts, and it will order or pre-order any in-print or forthcoming title by phone or email. Highland council area.
• Highland Hospice Books and Collectibles, Nairn – A dedicated hospice books-and-collectibles shop, not a general charity shop, opened 2022 when the hospice’s Nairn shop moved a few doors up.

Independent bookshops in the Highlands

Leakey’s in Inverness – an old Gaelic church with a wood-burning stove and 100,000 books – is the one everybody knows, and rightly so. Beyond it the Highland shops are scattered and often remote: Ullapool has two, Lochinver has the most north-westerly bookshop on the mainland, and there is a book bothy at Poolewe.

• Leakey’s Bookshop, Inverness – Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop (c.100,000 books, maps and prints) in the former Gaelic Church of 1793, with a spiral staircase, gallery and a wood-burning stove in the middle of the floor. Family-run since 1979; the old cafe closed years ago to make room for more books.
• The Highland Bookshop, Fort William – Opened 2017 on the pedestrianised High Street; new books downstairs plus an upstairs ‘Big Outdoors Book Lounge’ billed as Scotland’s biggest selection of climbing, walking and adventure titles, and a small secondhand section (Scottish, mountaineering, travel).
• The Ullapool Bookshop, Ullapool – Family-run new-book shop by the harbour (same family as the Captain’s Cabin and Lochbroom Hardware next door), strong on Highlands & Islands titles, geology, walking/kayaking guides, OS maps and local fishing guides. Booksellers Association member; sells National Book Tokens.
• The Ceilidh Place Bookshop, Ullapool – ‘A bookshop with rooms’: the shop began as a single spindle shelf in the hotel lobby in 1980 and now fills a room off the cafe-bar of the Ceilidh Place hotel/arts venue, with a Scottish literary bias, Gaelic books, poetry, hillwalking, children’s and sheet music.
• The Dornoch Bookshop, Dornoch – Small general new-book shop on the High Street a few steps from Dornoch Cathedral, with a children’s corner (table and chair), Scottish, Gaelic and Scots titles, OS maps and a coffee cart sometimes parked outside. Hosts author events and promotes the Highland Book Prize. Dog friendly; Mon-Sat 10-5.
• Lochinver Bookshop, Lochinver – Family-owned since 1988 and the most north-westerly bookshop on the Scottish mainland; specialises in land, outdoor and Scottish history titles, maps and toys, and leads the partnership behind the Assynt Book Festival.
• Caberfeidh Horizons Bookshop, Kingussie – Volunteer-run charity secondhand bookshop opened 2004 that funds workplace training for adults with learning disabilities, who clean, value and shelve the donated stock on site. Large fiction section, strong Scottish shelf, plus CDs/LPs and tourist information.
• Highflight Books, Dingwall – Packed secondhand and antiquarian shop with an unusually large aviation section (gliding, wartime aircraft, Biggles, reference guides) alongside Scottish, military, maritime and local history, plus Lego and a Scalextric track for good measure. Prices mostly £3-£12. Nominally Mon-Sat 9-5 but hours vary. No website.
• Picaresque Books, Dingwall – Long-running Dingwall indie selling new and antiquarian books alongside local art, as Picaresque Books & Galerie Fantoosh. Reopened in April 2026 under new ownership at 5 George Street; Mon-Sat 10-4.30.
• Hillbillies Bookstore (Mountain Coffee Company), Gairloch – Adventure/outdoor bookshop attached to the Mountain Coffee Co cafe in Gairloch’s village square: travel, mountaineering and Scottish titles to browse over coffee and homemade cake, with en-suite rooms upstairs.
• Ron’s Book Bothy, Poolewe – Secondhand (and some new) books in the attic rooms above Poolewe village hall, reached through the Button Bothy jewellery/craft studio; walls covered in framed bookplates rescued from damaged books, plus old maps and sheet music, and a view over Loch Ewe.

Independent bookshops in the Scottish Borders

The Borders punches well above its weight. Mainstreet at St Boswells is one of the best bookshop-cafes in Britain, Hawick has two very different secondhand shops, and Peebles has three shops within a few minutes’ walk.

• The Mainstreet Trading Company, Melrose, St Boswells – Multi-award-winning bookshop, cafe and deli created by Rosamund and Bill de la Hey in a former auction house in 2008, with a renowned children’s section and a deli-and-homeware barn behind.
• The Reading Room, Melrose – Small independent opened 2021 on Melrose High Street, with a large Scotland section (history, landscape, maps and walking guides for the Eildons and St Cuthbert’s Way), children’s picture books and gifts.
• The Wedale Bookshop, Galashiels, Stow – Village bookshop on the A7 a short walk from Stow station, ‘probably the only independent bookshop you can reach by rail in the Borders’. Fiction, crime, folklore and witchcraft, Borders history, a children’s corner with colouring table, and fair-trade gifts.
• The Signal Box, Galashiels – Volunteer-run second-hand bookshop opened by the Borders Railway Community Partnership (its HQ); railway books are the big strength, with general stock, toys, DVDs and comics, and proceeds support the Borders Railway.
• Scott’s Selkirk, Selkirk – Volunteer-staffed second-hand bookshop in the Market Place whose takings fund the town’s annual Sir Walter Scott festival; wide cheap general stock plus local publications, cards and visitor information.
• The Forest Bookstore, Selkirk – Literary new-book shop founded 2006, twice Yale Books’ bookshop of the month, specialising in literature, art and environment titles.
• Heron & Willow, Jedburgh – Family-run shop opened April 2023 that has been a UK Independent Bookshop of the Year finalist every year since (2024-26): new books, new vinyl and record players, a children’s nook with drawing table, three book groups and a monthly second-hand sale in the back yard (last Saturday, from £2).
• Damascus Drum, Hawick – Cafe-cum-second-hand bookshop that also sells hand-made Anatolian rugs, with good fiction and Scottish shelves and a large mysticism section.
• The Old Curiosity Bookshop, Hawick – Around 50,000 second-hand titles in a former mission hall, relocated to Hawick from Leicestershire; cheap school and university textbooks, cafe on site, free rear parking, dogs welcome, and worldwide postal book subscriptions.
• 20 Storey, Kelso – Bookshop-and-gifts on Kelso’s Square, named by Times readers as one of the UK’s best independent bookshops – the only Scottish entry – for its carefully curated books and unusual gifts.
• Priorsford Books, Peebles – Second-hand and nearly-new shop on the Northgate, well stocked with Scottish interest (strong Buchan and Stevenson shelves), children’s collectables, crime, Persephone and Folio editions, prints and bookish gifts. Single owner, so the hours can slip – worth ringing ahead.
• Whitie’s Books & Crafts, Peebles – Family business founded 1899, now down a close behind the Royal Bank at the east end of the High Street: new books (large Scottish interest and history selection, 24-hour ordering) alongside haberdashery and crafts, with ‘The Snug’, a fireside room for readers and crafters. Six days 10-5.
• Peebles Comics & Games, Peebles – Specialist comic shop: new and back-issue comics, graphic novels and manga plus board games, trading cards and Warhammer, with subscriptions and pre-orders. Include only if graphic-novel specialists fit the directory.

Wigtown: Scotland’s National Book Town

Wigtown has been Scotland’s National Book Town since 1998, and nine bookshops now trade in a village of under a thousand people. They are nearly all on Main Street and the square, so you can do the lot on foot in a morning – though you will not want to rush it. The Wigtown Book Festival runs each autumn.

• The Bookshop, Wigtown – Shaun Bythell’s shop (author of The Diary of a Bookseller). Claims to be Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop: nine rooms, roughly 100,000 books on about a mile of shelving, with a strong Scottish room plus railway, military and antiquarian sections.
• ReadingLasses Bookshop & Cafe, Wigtown – The pink ‘only women’s bookshop in Britain’: front room of books by and about women including Persephone and Virago reprints, a middle room of general stock, and a cafe doing homemade soup, soda bread and baking. A further 17,000 books live in ‘The Hut’, a former WW2 telephone exchange used as an event space.
• Byre Books, Wigtown – Second-hand specialist in a converted stone byre reached down a pend by the Market Cross, with a small garden to sit in. Specialises in world folklore and mythology, Scottish and Gaelic books, archaeology, theatre, film and TV, play scripts and classics.
• The Old Bank Bookshop, Wigtown – Five or six rooms of out-of-print, second-hand and antiquarian books in a former Customs House and bank, run by musicians Ian and Joyce Cochrane; strong on military and local history, children’s collectables and a whole room of sheet music, plus a curated selection of new titles. Wheelchair accessible.
• Well-Read Books, Wigtown – Opened Sept 2018 in the former Grapes Bar by retired QC Ruth Anderson: a bright, well-shelved second-hand shop strong on crime, modern and classic fiction, Scottish, history and military, with some new fiction and local-author titles.
• Foggie Toddle Books, Wigtown – Wigtown’s dedicated children’s bookshop, next door to The Bookshop: new titles from baby books to YA plus a room of pre-loved and vintage children’s books, games, toys and a small play-and-drawing area. This is the former Curly Tale Books shop, renamed in autumn 2015.
• New Chapter Books, Wigtown – Opened June 2022 by Gary and Louise Martin, the town’s first new bookshop in three years. Vintage and second-hand fiction across genres with some new titles, a large stock of ephemera for collectors and scrapbookers, and local/family-history material.
• Number Twenty-Six, Wigtown – Wigtown Festival Company’s volunteer-run shop, the only one in town dedicated to new releases, with signed festival-author copies, literary gifts, local art and produce; all profits fund the Book Festival.
• The Open Book, Wigtown – The world’s first bookshop holiday: guests book the flat upstairs via Airbnb and run the small general second-hand shop below for a week or two, so stock, hours and window displays change with each guest bookseller.

Independent bookshops in Dumfries and Galloway

Beyond Wigtown, the south-west has shops in Moffat, Sanquhar, Thornhill, Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Gatehouse of Fleet – the last of them inside a restored mill with a cafe.

• Moffat Bookshop, Moffat – Second-hand and collectable books with an emphasis on Scottish and local material, plus some new stock ordered via Bookshop.org; it describes itself as re-homing books.
• Mill Bookshop (Mill on the Fleet), Gatehouse of Fleet – Roughly 20,000 second-hand books on the upper floors of a restored 18th-century cotton mill visitor centre, strong on art, poetry, children’s and Scottish subjects, with a cafe downstairs.
• The Book Warren, Sanquhar – Tiny rural bookshop (with the ‘Book Warren Bothy’) up the Mennock Pass road outside Sanquhar, selling new, vintage and antiquarian books, maps and gifts; Scottish subjects, outdoors and natural history are strengths.
• Dalbeattie Books, Dalbeattie – Small family-run shop selling new and remainder books at keen prices, with maps, cards and craft materials in the back room.
• Chapters of Thornhill, Thornhill – Opened 2024 by former reporter and history teacher Jenny Batchelor as an ‘affordable, sustainable’ bookshop for Nithsdale, mixing new and pre-loved stock with free local collection of online orders.
• Gallovidia Books, Kirkcudbright – Opened Nov 2021 by Stewart and Elizabeth Parsons on the corner of St Mary Street in the Artists’ Town: a curated new-book shop running from ancient Scottish history to new releases, wrapping purchases in paper and string rather than plastic.
• Oxfam Books & Music Dumfries, Dumfries – Dedicated Oxfam books-and-music shop (not a general charity shop): good fiction range with strong history and local-interest sections, plus vinyl and CDs.
• The Book Nook (Stewarton), Stewarton – Sarah Frame’s shop, Scottish Independent Bookshop of the Year at the British Book Awards in both 2024 and 2025 and UK Favourite Family Business 2022: strong children’s/YA range, free monthly author events, book clubs, toddler sessions and teas and coffees.

Independent bookshops in Ayrshire

Ayrshire is thin on the ground but what there is, is good: an award-winning new-book shop in Stewarton, another on the road to the Arran ferry, and three charity bookshops including one in the stables at Culzean.

• Seahorse Bookstore, Ardrossan – Family-run, disabled-owned new-book shop opened Aug 2021 on the road to the Arran ferry, with three rooms (fiction, non-fiction, kids), local artists’ work, twice-monthly book clubs, music nights and a writing salon; British Book Awards regional finalist 2025.
• Oxfam Books & Music Troon, Troon – Small dedicated Oxfam books-and-music branch, about 80% books with the rest vinyl, CDs and DVDs.
• North Ayrshire Cancer Care Bookshop (Largs), Largs – Dedicated charity bookshop (not a general charity shop) selling donated stock, mainly paperbacks, for the local cancer-care charity.
• North Ayrshire Cancer Care Bookshop (West Kilbride), West Kilbride – Two-room charity bookshop in the ‘Craft Town’ with lots of paperback fiction and a larger non-fiction selection than its Largs sister.
• Culzean Second-hand Bookshop, Maybole – Volunteer-run National Trust for Scotland bookshop inside the Culzean estate with a large, well-priced general stock (most books around £2).
• Flirtatious Fiction, Ayr – Ayr’s romance-only bookshop: curated new romance, special orders for whatever the latest spicy release is, and Rebound Reads, an in-store trade-in that takes pre-loved romance for cash or credit. Runs author signings and after-hours events, and is behind Flirt Fest, a romance readers’ weekend in Prestwick.

Independent bookshops on the Scottish islands

Nineteen bookshops across Skye, Mull, Islay, Colonsay, Arran, Bute, Lewis, Orkney and Shetland. Some are the only bookshop for a ferry ride in any direction, and most carry island writing you will not easily find on the mainland.

• Carmina Gadelica, Portree, Isle of Skye – Skye’s main bookshop, strong on Gaelic for learners, Gaelic poetry and Hebridean literature alongside local walking and scrambling guides; a small secondhand section of under 100 mostly local titles.
• Waystone Books, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye – Opened in 2026 in the building that was formerly Jann’s Cakes, crowdfunded by the local community; modern fiction, independent publishers and local authors, a takeaway coffee counter and home-baked biscuits, with book clubs, storytimes and author events run partly in the village hall across the road.
• Gilleasbuig Ferguson Rare Books, Skeabost Bridge, Isle of Skye – A private rare and antiquarian stock of roughly 3,000-4,000 volumes strong on Scottish, Highland and island subjects plus early science and natural history; the owner also does book restoration and paper repair and sells original art, photographs and maps. Open when the owner is home, so ring ahead.
• Tackle and Books, Tobermory, Isle of Mull – On the Tobermory seafront for over 40 years and genuinely half bookshop, half fishing-tackle shop – fishing permits and boat bookings over the same counter as Mull, Hebridean, history and natural history titles, plus maps of every type for Mull and Iona and artists’ materials. Hosts literary events and local authors.
• The Bookshed, Bunessan, Isle of Mull – An unstaffed secondhand book shed behind the Island Castaways reuse shop on the Ross of Mull, open 24/7 with an honesty box – cash only, suggested £1 per book. Run by MESS (Mull & Iona Environmentally Sensitive Solutions).
• The Celtic House, Bowmore, Isle of Islay – Islay’s bookshop, run by the Roy family in a purpose-built shop since 1959: new Scottish and Hebridean titles, signed copies and a rare/secondhand section, with an in-house coffee shop whose cakes are baked daily by the family’s own baker.
• Colonsay Bookshop, Scalasaig, Isle of Colonsay – Shares its building with the publisher House of Lochar, which is why the Scottish-interest and antiquarian stock is unusually deep for an island of 120 people; sections on natural history, Scottish literature, children’s books and Colonsay itself.
• Johnston’s Arran Bookroom, Lamlash, Isle of Arran – Around 2,800 titles, specialising in Arran books and in nautical, diving and shipwreck material, plus collectable Scottish and children’s books. Visitors welcome but by appointment only (01770 600344), so it is not a walk-in shop.
• The Wee Bookshop, Corrie, Isle of Arran – A one-room shop by the shore focused tightly on Arran, mountains, walking, wildlife, environment and maps, run by the publisher of The Arran Almanac.
• The Book and Card Centre, Brodick, Isle of Arran – Third-generation family business established 1985 and Arran’s general bookseller – new books alongside cards, stationery, newspapers, toys and sweets.
• Print Point, Rothesay, Isle of Bute – The only bookshop on Bute, founded 1997 and part print shop – next-day book ordering, freshly ground coffee, art supplies and Games Workshop stock. Known for its crime fiction and is a partner venue of Bute Noir, the island’s crime writing festival.
• Baltic Bookshop, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis – Founded 1904 and still in the same family – the current owner is a great-grand-nephew of founder Roderick Smith.
• Stornoway Christian Bookshop, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis – Trading since 1951 (originally the Stornoway Religious Bookshop) and run as a registered Scottish charity whose profits go to Christian charities; Bibles and theology alongside children’s books, cards, stationery, CDs and DVDs.
• The Orcadian Bookshop, Kirkwall, Orkney – Owned by The Orcadian newspaper, a short walk from St Magnus Cathedral, and the best single place for Orkney-published fiction and non-fiction (much of it from The Orcadian’s own press) alongside general stock, guidebooks, maps and daily papers. Runs a regular author-signing programme.
• Stromness Books & Prints, Stromness, Orkney – George Mackay Brown’s old bookshop, owned by Sheena Winter, who started there under Tam MacPhail 28 years ago. Now in a larger two-room space on Victoria Street with sea views, reading corners and a toilet; it hosts author readings (Cal Flyn launched The Savage Landscape there) and keeps signed stock.
• Birsay Books, Birsay, Orkney – Orkney’s most northerly bookshop and the islands’ antiquarian specialist – about 5,000 secondhand and rare titles weighted to Orkney, Shetland, the Highlands and Islands, birds and wildlife, with science fiction and Folio Society runs.
• The Shetland Bookshop, Lerwick, Shetland – Formerly The Shetland Times Bookshop.
• Shetland Christian Bookshop, Lerwick, Shetland – A dedicated Christian bookshop open to the public six days a week, which also runs bookstalls at Shetland events and supplies library placements.
• Kergord Hatchery Bookshop, Weisdale, Shetland – Shetland’s secondhand bookshop, opened 2021 in a converted fish hatchery directly opposite the Bonhoga Gallery cafe, so the two make an easy single stop. Unusually wide stock for its size: antiquarian, sci-fi and fantasy, poetry, gardening, large print, quick reads for less confident readers and books in several other languages.

Visiting Scotland’s bookshops: your questions answered

Opening hours in small towns and on the islands can be seasonal or depend on one person being well, so it is worth a quick check before you make a special trip. If a shop has moved, closed or opened since I last checked, let me know and I will update the map.

Kate – Love from Scotland x

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