[2] Craigenputtock occupies 800 acres (320 hectares) of farmland in the civil parish of Dunscore in Dumfriesshire, within the District Council Region of Dumfries and Galloway.

some mystic turn of thought Caught under German eaves, and hither brought, Marring thine eye For the world's loveliness, till thou art grown A sober thing that dost but mope and moan, Not knowing why?

The following is his account and sketches of his stay:[3] Fifty years have come and gone since this lonely moorland farmhouse was tenanted by Thomas Carlyle and his newly-wedded wife, Jane Welsh.

We can wander through the quiet fields and adjacent moor; the garden still yields its scanty stock of fruit and vegetables as of old; we may sit in the quondam drawing-room, look into the once snug study, and even invade the sanctuary of the kitchen, memorable as the scene of Mrs. Carlyle's culinary triumphs.

It is easy to imagine the then hale Carlyle, waling solitary out there on the darkest nights, wrestling with his soul for and answer to the questionings within him regarding the problems of life, while from the open window issues the sound of music; his wife is playing Scottish airs on the piano.

Very simply were the "curious impertinent" once baffled, but now the door stands open, and, though few indeed venture near, a visitors' book lies on the lobby table, where those who make a pilgrimage to the spot can register their names.

– We have arrived at Craigenputtock and found much done, but still much to do… Had we come hither out of whim one might have sickened and grown melancholy over such an outlook; but we came only in search of food and raiment, and will not start at straws.

Man is born to trouble and toil as the sparks fly upwards… Of the Craig o' Putta I cannot yet rightly speak till we have seen what adjustment matters will assume.

The house stands heightened and white with rough cast, a light hewn porch in front, and cans on the chimney heads; and within it all seems firm and sound.

Two months later Carlyle again writes to his brother – "Here is a drawing room with Goethe's picture in it, and a piano, and the finest papering on the walls; and I write even now behind it, in my own little library, out of which truly I can see nothing but a barn-roof, tree tops, and empty hay-carts, and under it perhaps a stagnant midden, cock with hens, overfed or else dazed with wet and starvation; but within which I may see a clear fire (of peats and Sanquhar coals), with my desk and books, and every accoutrement I need in fairest order.

In all this Carlyle seems to be struggling to look with a brave face on what was actually a temporary banishment from all the amenities of life, and his impatience now and again gets the better of him, breaking out into such expressions as "This Devil's Den," Craigenputtock.

Unaccustomed to humble household duties, cut off from all society in which she had shone, and which she heartily enjoyed, for sole companion the preoccupied and moody, if loving, Carlyle, her lot was not one to be envied.

But she had entered upon her married life in spite of the advice, and even the reproaches of her friends, and with a firm resolution to hope and wait for better days; and never while here, seldom indeed at any time, did she allow a word of complaint to fall from her lips.

Nothing can adequately palliate the cruel thoughtlessness of Carlyle in taking a gently nurtured woman to rough it in this wild place.

And when we think what are the ordinary and natural duties of a small farmer's wife and family, we are the less surprised at his failing to realise the difference in Mrs. Carlyle's position and upbringing.

Craigenputtock, meaning the wooded hill of the puttock, a kind of hawk, is a small estate on the borders of Dumfriesshire and Galloway, some 1,800 acres in extent, mostly moorland, and lying seven hundred feet above sea-level.

Its precise situation is on the valley, running from the parish of Dunscore in Glencairn to the river Urr – flowing from the adjacent loch of the same name.

There appears no indication of the age of the present mansion, but from the style of its architecture, if an absolutely square building may be said to have any, it can no claims to antiquity, and probably dates from the beginning of this century.

The front of the house, facing the north, commands no view whatever, and looks into a grassy bank, rising immediately towards a now spare plantation.

Ascending a narrow stone stair from the hall, we find ourselves on a small landing, whence four doors open into four several bedrooms, which complete the modest accommodation of Craigenputtock.