Ecclefechan is a small village in the south of Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway. The small village has two food types called after it: the ecclefechan tart and ecclefechan whisky. It is also famous for being the birthplace of poet and author Thomas Carlyle.Ecclefechan lay in the early Middle Ages within the British kingdom of Rheged, and the name is derived from the Brythonic for "small church" . After Gaelic later spread in the area, the belief arose that the name derived from the 7th century St Féchín of Fore.The village is known as "Fechan" to the local residents. It has two shops, one of which is no longer a post office, a hairdresser, a doctors' surgery and a primary school "Hoddom Primary School". It also has three hotels: "The Ecclefechan Hotel," with its white-painted frontage, is prominent on the High Street and the main junction in the village; the "Cressfield Hotel," which has an adjoining caravan park; and "Kirkconnel Hall Hotel," which sits to the north.Geography and administrationEcclefechan lies in the valley of the Mein Water, a tributary of the River Annan, 5mi north of Annan and 8mi northwest of the English border. The A74(M) motorway runs immediately north of the village and Junction 19 is just northwest of the village.The High Street of the village has a burn which runs through a culvert below it. This culvert was constructed in 1875 by Dr George Arnott at his own expense.