The writer and historian Thomas Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan in 1795, in the Arched House his family built; the National Trust for Scotland has cared for it since 1936 and opens it seasonally. Carlyle chose to be buried here in the village churchyard rather than at Westminster Abbey. Ecclefechan sits just off the A74(M) in Annandale, an easy stop rather than a destination.
