No driveway specialist listed in Gatehouse of Fleet yet.

A driveway specialist lays new driveways and refurbishes existing ones - block paving, tarmac, resin-bound stone and concrete, including the sub-base and drainage that determine whether the surface lasts.

Front gardens of more than five square metres need planning permission unless the surface is permeable or drains to a soakaway, so check before laying impermeable materials.

Get the falls right - water should run off the driveway, not pool against the house - and ask for an SUDS-friendly approach if the area is prone to surface water.

Gatehouse of Fleet is a small planned town on the Water of Fleet in the Stewartry, sometimes called the 'Glasgow of the South' for its brief industrial heyday in the late 18th century when cotton mills lined the river.

The mills are long gone, but the town retains an elegant Georgian layout, a clock tower and a quiet charm that has made it a popular base for visitors to Galloway.

Cardoness Castle, a 15th-century tower house overlooking the Fleet estuary, stands just south of the town and is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the region.

The town sits on the A75 and is close to some of the finest coastal scenery in Galloway, including the Solway shoreline and Murray's Monument viewpoint.

(opens in new tab)

Dumfries and Galloway is the most south-westerly council area in Scotland, stretching from the English border at Gretna to the Mull of Galloway - the southernmost point in Scotland - and from the Solway Firth coast inland to the hills of the Southern Uplands.

Dumfries is the largest town and administrative centre, a handsome red sandstone burgh on the River Nith where Robert Burns spent the last years of his life and is buried in St Michael's Kirkyard.

The region divides naturally into three historic areas: Dumfriesshire to the east, Kirkcudbrightshire (the Stewartry) in the centre and Wigtownshire to the west - each with its own character, landscape and loyalties.

The Galloway coast and countryside have a mild climate influenced by the Gulf Stream, fertile farmland, dark-sky reserves and a string of small harbour towns that attract artists, writers and visitors drawn to the quiet and the landscape.

Despite its size, the region is one of the most sparsely populated in Scotland - a place where community is strong, the pace is slower and the landscape ranges from river valleys and rolling farmland to wild moorland and rocky coastline.