Galloway Lodge

Ruaridh and Naomi Hesketh run Galloway Lodge from Fleet Vale on the High Street in Gatehouse of Fleet, the second generation to make the marmalades, jams and chutneys that Ruaridh's father Nigel Hesketh began cooking in 1971. The attached cafe serves the same preserves alongside coffee and homemade food, including a seasonal Friday-evening burger pop-up in summer called the Galloway Burger House. Poacher's Pickle, a savoury chutney, remains the company's best-known product and appears on shelves in independent shops and farm shops well beyond Dumfries and Galloway. Every batch is made in the firm's own kitchens rather than bought in and rebranded, a distinction the family still emphasises on its packaging. The shop sits on Gatehouse's main street among the town's small run of independent retailers.