8 UK Independent Bookshops Worth a Literary Pilgrimage

A good bookshop can be the entire reason for a journey. You do not need a festival ticket or a long weekend to justify a few hours on a train — you need a shop with a strong enough personality to pull you off the main road and into a town you would otherwise drive straight past. The eight below earn the trip on their own terms: for the building, the stock, the people behind the counter, or all three at once. Pack a tote bag, clear the day, and expect to need more time than you planned.

The North of England

Barter Books, Alnwick

Barter Books occupies Alnwick's old railway station, and the building does a great deal of the work: high ceilings, a waiting room now filled with armchairs, and a model railway running along a track above the shelves. In winter there are open fires. The stock is secondhand and vast, arranged with something close to a librarian's logic, and the old station buffet serves as a café where you can sit with a coffee and a tower of maybes. This is also the shop where a copy of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster turned up in a box of old books — a pleasing thing to know and a better thing to see. Allow three hours.

Scarthin Books, Cromford

Scarthin is a warren: a tall, narrow building beside the mill pond at Cromford, packed across three floors with new and secondhand books and joined together by staircases that look like afterthoughts. You will get lost, and that is the point. The café at the top is vegetarian and does a decent slice of cake, and the view over the water is a fair argument for staying for lunch. Pair it with a wander round Cromford Mill, a few minutes' walk away, and you have a full day in Derbyshire.

The Fens

Topping & Company, Ely

Ely's cathedral draws the crowds; Topping is the reason to stay past lunch. It is a family-run shop with a serious events programme and shelves that reward slow browsing rather than a quick scan. The detail everyone remembers is the free tea and coffee, a small kindness that turns a twenty-minute stop into an afternoon. Sister shops in Bath and St Andrews came later, but Ely is where it started. Check the website before you travel, because readings and signings fill the place on event nights.

The West and Wales

Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, Bath

A couple of minutes from the centre of Bath, Mr B's treats recommending books as the main event rather than a sideline. The famous service is the Reading Spa: you book a slot, sit down with a bookseller, talk through what you have loved and loathed, and leave with a stack chosen for you. It is ticketed and it books up, so plan ahead. If that feels like a commitment, the themed rooms and handwritten recommendations are worth the journey on their own.

The Poetry Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

Hay-on-Wye is a town built on books, and you could lose a weekend going from shop to shop. With only an hour spare, spend it here. The Poetry Bookshop is small and specialist, carrying new and secondhand collections and a genuine devotion to the form; whoever is behind the counter will happily send you away with something you would never have picked up yourself. Time a visit for late May if you want the Hay Festival, or come out of season when the streets are quiet and the booksellers have time to talk.

Scotland

The Bookshop, Wigtown

Wigtown is Scotland's book town, and The Bookshop is its biggest secondhand shop: room after room of stock, orderly enough to browse and large enough to disappear into for a morning. The town's book festival takes over in late September and early October, when every hall and café becomes a venue. If you have ever fancied running a bookshop, The Open Book nearby lets guests do exactly that for a week, staying above the shop and serving behind the counter. It books up a long way ahead.

The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh

A relative newcomer on Portobello High Street, a short walk from the promenade, and a good example of what a modern independent does well: a tightly edited selection rather than endless shelves, tables that change with the season, and an events calendar that pulls in authors from across the country. The staff recommendations are handwritten and worth reading properly. Go on a dry day, buy something, then walk down to the beach and start it.

Northern Ireland

No Alibis, Belfast

On Botanic Avenue, No Alibis has built its reputation on crime fiction — new, secondhand and hard to find — alongside a steady run of author events. The staff know the genre deeply and will not sneer if you ask for something gentler than the latest bleak thriller. It is the sort of shop where you go in for one book and come out with three, plus a recommendation for a writer you have never heard of. Handy for the Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum if you are making a day of it.

Planning the pilgrimage

A few practical notes before you set off:

• Check opening hours on the day. Small shops often close one or two days a week, and winter hours are shorter than summer ones.
• Look at the events diary. An author reading can be a bonus or a crowd, depending on what you want from the visit.
• Travel by train where you can. Ely, Cromford and Edinburgh are straightforward by rail, and Alnwick is a short hop from Alnmouth.
• Carry some cash. Most places take cards, but smaller secondhand shops sometimes prefer notes.
• Buy something. Browsing is welcome; purchases are what keep the lights on. One book is enough.
• Ask for help. Name the last three books you loved and let the bookseller do the rest. That conversation is the whole point of an independent.

None of these shops needs a special occasion. A free Saturday, a train ticket and a rough idea of where you are going will do. Arrive early, stay longer than you meant to, and come home with something you did not know you wanted.

Photo: Theo Felten / Pexels