No groundworker listed in Gatehouse of Fleet yet.

A groundworker handles the unseen work that supports a building - excavation, foundations, drainage runs, sub-bases, site clearance and grading - everything below ground level before the bricklayers and joiners arrive.

Get a soil and ground-conditions check on any site you don't already know - clay, made-up ground or peat each call for different foundation strategies and ignoring this is the most expensive mistake on a build.

Make sure any drainage work is signed off in writing - groundworks that fail building control later are a nightmare to retrofit once a slab has been poured.

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.

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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.