Glenlair
Encyclopedia
Glenlair House, near the village of Corsock
in the Scottish
Council area
of Dumfries and Galloway
, was the home of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell
(1831–1879). The original structure was designed for Maxwell's father
by Walter Newall
; Maxwell himself oversaw the construction of an extension in the late 1860s, and further improvements were made by his heir, Andrew Wedderburn-Maxwell. Fires in 1899 and 1929 left the house gutted, but a project to preserve and stabilize the remains has been undertaken by the Maxwell at Glenlair Trust.
Corsock
Corsock is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. It is located north of Castle Douglas, and the same distance east of New Galloway, on the Urr Water....
in the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Council area
Subdivisions of Scotland
For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas" which are all governed by unitary authorities designated as "councils"...
of Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...
, was the home of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
(1831–1879). The original structure was designed for Maxwell's father
John Clerk-Maxwell of Middlebie
John Clerk of Middlebie was a Scottish advocate. He bought the Glenlair estate in the parish of Parton, Kirkcudbrightshire, and built its estate house....
by Walter Newall
Walter Newall
Walter Newall was a Scottish architect and civil engineer, born at Doubledyke in the parish of New Abbey, near Dumfries in south-west Scotland...
; Maxwell himself oversaw the construction of an extension in the late 1860s, and further improvements were made by his heir, Andrew Wedderburn-Maxwell. Fires in 1899 and 1929 left the house gutted, but a project to preserve and stabilize the remains has been undertaken by the Maxwell at Glenlair Trust.