Donald Greig first visited Dumfries and Galloway when five weeks old and has been returning ever since. Some of his earliest memories are from the region: bluebells in spring in Carstramon Wood at Gatehouse-of-Fleet, beach holidays at Sandgreen and Rockcliffe, fish and chips by the harbour at Kirkcudbright… simple pleasures that continue to attract visitors today as they did 40 years ago. From 2013–23 he lived in Moffat in the northeast corner of the region, before migrating 40 minutes into the Scottish Borders region. A travel publisher by trade, including seven years as Bradt’s managing director, he has spent much of his life globetrotting but is now settled in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, where he juggles writing assignments for a range of national publications (including Scotland on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, Wanderlust, BBC Countryfile and The List) with community and landowner engagement across southern Scotland.

Darren Flint is a relative newcomer to the area, settling in Dumfries and Galloway in 2013, yet he was hooked from the outset. Over the subsequent decade, he helped with a host of community and environmental projects, from caring for Castle Loch nature reserve to developing new play parks, running a B&B and developing a new long-distance path. Now rooted in Scotland’s Southern Uplands, he is an avid naturalist with a particular fascination for butterflies and – along with getting his hands dirty with practical habitat-conservation work out in the field – he likes nothing better than donning his walking boots and uncovering those hidden corners we all dream about. Flint has co-written two walking guides to the region, as well as Bradt’s Dumfries & Galloway (Slow Travel).