Dumfries and Galloway covers an area of some 2,460 square miles in the South West part of Scotland and is the closest part of the UK mainland to Ireland.

Scenically it is a microcosm of the whole of Scotland taking in as it does the estuaries and bays along the coastline of the Solway Firth, the valleys and the hills of the Southern Uplands, huge wooded areas of commercial afforestation, and in the north still observable relics of the traditional coal and lead mining industries. The area includes Scotland's southernmost point at the Mull of Galloway and Scotland's highest village at Wanlockhead.

The climate of Dumfries and Galloway is the mildest in Scotland which allows for the growth of sub-tropical plants in the west, and makes it attractive to a wide variety of bird and animal life dominated by the huge seabird breeding colonies on the Mull of Galloway and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust site at Caelaverock, winter home to the bulk of the barnacle goose population of Spitzbergen.

For further information about Dumfries and Galloway please contact
Dumfries and Galloway Tourist Board.