Scottish Review of Bookshops: Pitlochry Station Bookshop

Supporting five different charities by selling donated second hand stock, this is a genuine gem tucked into the perfect location.  Made possible by Scotrail’s ‘Adopt a Station’ scheme (similar to BT’s campaign for communities to Adopt a Kiosk) the Pitlochry Station Bookshop has adapted the disused space in a way that creates a welcoming image and preserves a truly lovely old-fashioned train station.  I managed to nab a quick browse and a cup of boiling hot coffee as Him Indoors and I waited for our train, and the selection did not disappoint.  Bigger than it appears at first glance, there is a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, and a separate case for those trendy orange penguin classics people tend to buy more for interior design than for reading.

I wish my bookshelves were this tidy.

However, the real joy of this bookshop, for a bibliophile like me at least is its focus on classic and antiquarian books.  When I visited there was a varied collection of fiction, poetry and drama and some interesting first editions.  All the stock is £1 unless marked otherwise, and this is the section where things are most likely to be pricier, but I was pleasantly surprised to only have to pay double that for one of the selection that I ended up carting home with me.  While I could have easily bought half the shop, I instead opted for a two volume penguin classics set of War and Peace and a copy of Robinson Crusoe which served as birthday presents for a friend, and a book of poetry by Browning for myself, featured below.

Browning.

Omnomnom coffee cake.

The Pitlochry Train Station Bookshop is definitely worth a visit if you are ever passing through Pitlochry, although I might recommend Hettie's Tea for a cuppa instead.  Cute china cups, a selection of hand-blended teas (available online) and cake cut into ‘doorstop’ sized slices; this tearoom ticks all the boxes and does proper lunch as well (when I visited the special was stovies). And its only five minutes from the train station, so very doable if you only have a brief stopover and are in need of something more substantial that coffee and old book smell.