about biggar

Set in the heart of the South Lanarkshire countryside, Biggar is a small town with a big welcome.  Just under an hour from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, it’s an easy and rewarding journey — whether you’re coming for a day trip or making a full weekend of it.

During Biggar Django Jazz Festival, the town will be a lively hub of music, with performances taking place in venues across the town.

One of Biggar’s real charms is its size — everything is within easy walking distance, so you can move from one gig to the next, explore the high street, and soak up the atmosphere without ever needing the car.

Explore the town

Take time to enjoy Biggar beyond the festival. The high street is lined with independent shops, galleries and local businesses, giving the town its distinctive character.  You can also visit the Biggar & Upper Clydesdale Museum, Biggar Gasworks, the only one surviving in Scotland, dating from 1839. Biggar is also home to the world-famous Purves Puppets theatre company.

Surrounded by beautiful countryside, Biggar is also a great base for a walk or a quiet moment outdoors if you’re looking to balance music with a bit of fresh air.

Nearby, you can visit the New Lanark World Heritage Site and take a walk along to the Falls of Clyde.

why biggar?

There’s something special about experiencing world-class jazz in a small-town setting. In Biggar, the festival feels close, connected and personal — artists and audiences sharing the same spaces, with music never far away.

It’s a place where you can discover something new, linger a little longer, and feel part of it all.

a few practical notes

Scottish weather can be unpredictable, even in June — so it’s worth bringing layers and something waterproof, just in case.

Most places in town accept card payments.

You’ll find essential amenities such as supermarkets, a pharmacy, petrol station and cash machine, on or very close to the High Street.

📜 Fascinating History & Heritage

📍 Ancient roots & settlement
Biggar has been a place of human activity for thousands of years — artefacts show people lived nearby as far back as prehistoric periods, including Mesolithic and Neolithic times. The town grew where ancient routes and a Roman road once passed through the landscape, linking west and east of Scotland.

📍 Medieval market town
The town’s wide main street and layout date back to when Biggar became an important market centre in medieval times. It received its Royal Charter (burgh status) in 1451, reflecting its role as a hub for local trade.

📍 Biggar’s medieval landmarks
Nearby are earthworks such as Coulter Motte Hill, a motte (mound) that hints at the former defensive structures in the area, and the site of Boghall Castle, historically connected with the influential Fleming family who shaped much of biggar’s early history.

📍 Industrial and cultural heritage
Biggar was home to early industry — including the Biggar Gasworks Museum, one of Scotland’s first gasworks (operational 1839–1973), now preserved.
And in the late 19th century, Albion Motors, once the largest truck company in the British Empire, started here — with the archives still associated with the town.

📍 Literary and wartime stories
The celebrated Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid lived near Biggar, and the area saw Polish soldiers stationed here in World War II as they regrouped after the fall of France.

🧙 Merlin in the Borders — Legend and Tradition

• Merlin is best known from medieval Arthurian tales as a prophet and wizard, first popularised in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th‑century writings.
• In Scottish Borders folklore, a version of Merlin (often called Merlin Sylvestris or linked to the Brythonic figure Lailoken) is said to have ended his life in the Tweed Valley near Drumelzier, not far (around 20+ miles) from Biggar.
• Local tradition claims Merlin was imprisoned by a local king, possibly Meldred, and after various trials met a “three‑fold death” — stoned, fell, and drowned — near the confluence of the Powsail Burn and River Tweed.
• This site has been known as “Merlin’s Grave” on old maps and in local memory at least since medieval and early modern times.

📜 Folklore Origins & Historical Roots

• Medieval manuscripts like the Vita Merlini Silvestris recorded similar tales, with associations between Merlin (or Lailoken) and the Borders landscape. Modern archaeological work in the Drumelzier and Tinnis area has even suggested that local early medieval settlement and ritual sites may have helped fix the legend in the local consciousness.
• Other stories link St Kentigern (St Mungo) with Merlin, suggesting he might have been baptised or influenced by Christian figures near Stobo, close to Drumelzier.

🗿 Standing Stones & Local Monuments

• Near Drumelzier there’s a prehistoric standing stone / menhir known locally as the Drumelzier Haugh stone — about 5–6 feet high — which is sometimes connected in local lore with Merlin’s burial or ritual landscape, though direct evidence for that connection is folklore rather than history.
• The tradition linking a standing stone directly to Merlin’s grave may have arisen from Bronze Age burials or prehistoric activity in the Tweed Valley long before the medieval legend formed.