The imposing gothic ivy- covered house set discreetly back from the winding country road looks like somewhere Batman’s Bruce Wayne might feel at home. But we’re a long way from Gotham City.

This is Moniaive, a pretty village of whitewashed houses nestling in the gentle hills and valleys of Dumfries and Galloway. In recent years the village has been transformed into a thriving artistic community, with a clutch of artists, designers, writers and musicians resident there. Alex Kapranos, the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand, has bought the Tudor-style former home of the Glasgow Boys artist James Paterson on the edge of the village.

With that in mind, it seems natural that Alan Grant, a well-known comic- book writer, famous for strips including Batman and Judge Dredd, should have chosen to settle here.

Set in five acres of grounds — complete with mature beech trees, firs, overgrown paths and even a pair of wild deer — the sturdy Arts and Crafts house, built in 1905, is an impressive sight. With its quirky dimensions and turret-like features, it has the air of a castle.

As rain lashes down outside, the spacious converted kitchen — painted in a cheerful bright yellow — is cosy, although the man who delivers the logs for the wood-burning fires has just called to say he’ll be a couple of days late.

Not that this is the type of rural hitch to send Grant and his English wife, Sue, screaming back to the city — their hearts belong firmly in the country.

The couple left London decades ago and have lived in a number of villages in Suffolk and Essex. Nine years ago they moved to Scotland, where Grant was raised. “I’d always intended to come back to Scotland one day,” he says.

His pride in the country, which he would like to see granted independence, is apparent from the Scottish flag that flies from his rooftop.

“All the villages we lived in before were commuter villages within about an hour’s drive of London. There was never anybody there during the day, so there was very little social life or community spirit.”

But with its two traditional pubs — one of which, the George, is 500 years old — a post office, a baker’s, several small shops and even an organic cafe, Moniaive couldn’t be more different.

It’s clear that the Grants, who founded a comic festival in the village to help attract tourists following the foot-and-mouth epidemic in the region in 2001, feel at home.

The house itself is certainly a substantial draw. A local landowner commissioned it in the early 1900s, but he died before its completion, leaving his wife in charge. It seems that she made an extremely able project manager, with each quirky handcrafted feature — from the windows to the doors — realised exactly as indicated by the original plans, which Sue tracked down.

Its construction certainly made an impression on Paterson, whose delicate painting of the newly built house now hangs above the Grants’ fireplace.

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