Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace is a house in

Ecclefechan Ecclefechan (Scottish Gaelic: ''Eaglais Fheichein'') is a village located in Dumfries and Galloway in the south of Scotland. The village is famous for being the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle. Ecclefechan lies in the valley of the Mein Water, a ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

, Scotland, in which

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

, who was to become a pre-eminent man of letters, was born in 1795. The house was built in 1791 by Carlyle's father James and James' brothers John and Tom, stonemasons all. It is owned by the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...

, registered as a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

. Architecturally, the home exemplifies 18th-century

Scottish Vernacular Scottish Vernacular architecture is a form of vernacular architecture that uses local materials. Overview In Scotland, as elsewhere, vernacular architecture employs readily available local materials and methods handed down from generation to gen ...

. It first opened to the public in 1881 and remains much as it was then. Many of Carlyle's belongings are housed along with a collection of portraits and photographs relating to his life. Carlyle lived here with his brother John Aitken Carlyle who would go on to translate Dante's ''Inferno'' into English (1849). It was from here that Thomas Carlyle walked nearly one hundred miles in order to attend the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

at the age of 13, intending for the ministry.

References

Category A listed buildings in Dumfries and Galloway Buildings and structures completed in 1791 Buildings and structures in Dumfries and Galloway

Birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

Carlyle, Thomas {{UK-listed-building-stub