It's to be hoped so.

Despite its pivotal role in the most romantic of "love conquers all" stories, there's little to appeal in the workaday little town outside of the tourist industry that has sprung up around its famed blacksmith's shop.

Border town Kirkcudbright, on the other hand, is a whimsy of a place. Pretty, sleepy and quaint in an Enid Blyton kind of way, a couple of days there warm the very cockles of your heart.

Life rumbles along in the little fishing town like I imagine it did in the 1950s. People smile at you in the street as they stroll to the butcher's – where home-made mutton pies jostle for shelf space with fresh haggis and trays of glistening Scottish beefsteak – and on to the fish shop, the baker's and the greengrocer's.

Shopping here is like it used to be – all about specialism, good service; taking your time. Even the tourist shops follow suit. Curiosity shops, dinky little antique shops and arty crafty stores abound – with not one piece of naff mass-produced souvenir between them.

And another thing about Kirkcudbright (or Kirkubrie, as the locals pronounce it)... You can't imagine a motorist getting anywhere close to road rage here. The streets full of noble Georgian houses and those dinky shops are wide and unfettered by double yellow lines and parking meters.

The town is just a tweak over the Scottish border in Galloway. Straight up the M1 to Scotch Corner, make your way to the M6 and in three hours you're in Galloway's gorgeous green countryside. Another 40 minutes and you reach the coast.

Finding our inn for the night – the AA-starred Selkirk Arms – involved a few circuits of the tiny town centre. Our satnav had told us we had 'Reached Our Destination' a tad too early.

But on a sunny late afternoon, and in some of the prettiest little streets imaginable, it was a pleasure to be lost.

Townsfolk have painted their smart, centuries-old terraced homes in an array of pastel colours. The Opal Fruit rows are broken by narrow alleyways lined with flower pots and old-fashioned pubs that look like they should be on a set of faded postcards.

Kirkcudbright's fishing harbour looks like something out of a painting, too. It must have inspired scores of the artists, potters and sculptors who have lived and worked for generations in the area.

Not for nothing is Kirkcudbright known as Galloway's Art Town. It has long supported a flourishing artists' colony.