Gretna ( gd, Greatna) is a town in

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, originally part of the historic county of

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. ...

. It is located close to the A74(M) on the border of Scotland and England and near the mouth of the River Esk.1:50,000 OS map 85 It is the most southeasterly settlement in Scotland. The town is situated east-south-east of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from th ...

, east of Annan, north-west of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

, south-east of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

and south of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

History

Etymology

Gretna means "(place at the) gravelly hill", from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''greot'' " grit" (in the

dative In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob ...

form greoten (which is where the -n comes from) and ''hoh'' "hill-spur". The

Lochmaben Stone The Lochmaben Stone () is a megalith standing in a field, nearly a mile west of the Sark mouth on the Solway Firth, three hundred yards or so above high water mark on the farm of Old Graitney in Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland. The area is also ...

is a megalith standing in a field, nearly west of the Sark mouth on the Solway Firth, three hundred yards or so above high water mark on the farm of Old Graitney. It was one of the traditionally recognised meeting places on the England / Scotland border.

17th century

Prior to the Acts of Union 1707 of the Parliaments of England and

, Gretna was a

customs post Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

for collecting

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

on cattle crossing the border between the two kingdoms. The Gretna customs post was established in 1612.Haldane, pages 161 & 167. A

Drove road A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...

was constructed between Gretna and Annan in 1619, possibly to facilitate the transportation of cattle from

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has ...

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

and

to markets in England.Haldane, pages 31 & 161.

18th century

Gretna's principal claim to fame arose in 1753 when an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament be ...

, '' Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act'', was passed in England, which provided, among other things, that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in

, which allowed boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12, with or without parental consent. In addition, the Act required procedures that gave notice of an impending marriage to the community. As a result, many

elope Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting ma ...

rs fled England, and the first Scottish village they reached was often Gretna. The act was repealed in 1849.

World War I

HM Factory, Gretna H.M. Factory, Gretna was the United Kingdom's largest cordite factory in World War I. The government-owned facility was adjacent to the Solway Firth, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway. It was built by the Ministry of Munitions in response ...

, codenamed ''Moorside'', was a cordite

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

factory built between Gretna Green and the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...

to supply ammunition to British forces during World War I. This developed into the town of Gretna.

Transport

Rail

In the 1840s, there were three main railway companies building lines around Gretna and this resulted in three railway stations named "Gretna". The first station called "Gretna" was opened by the

Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway The Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway was a railway company in Scotland, which constructed the line from near Cumnock to Gretna Junction, forming the route from Glasgow to Carlisle via Dumfries, in association with other lines. Its promo ...

on 23 August 1843, this station was renamed

Gretna Green railway station Gretna Green is a railway station on the Glasgow South Western Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Carlisle, serves the town of Gretna and village of Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is ow ...

in April 1852. It closed on 6 December 1965, but a new station was opened by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

nearby on 20 September 1993, the station is served by

Glasgow South Western Line The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride. History The line was built by several railway c ...

. This station had a new platform added in 2009,to coincide with the redoubling of this section of track. The other two stations were located a short distance to the east of Gretna, over the border in England. Gretna (Caledonian) railway station was opened on 9 September 1847 by the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

on its main line between Carlisle and Glasgow and Edinburgh.Butt, page 110 The station closed on 10 September 1951. The

North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...

built Gretna (Border Union) railway station next to the Caledonian station, at Gretna junction, on its short link to the

Border Union Railway The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters - the North British Railway.Awdry (19 ...

. The station opened on 1 November 1861 and closed during World War One on 9 August 1915.

Roads

A military road was built in 1763 by

General Wade Field Marshal George Wade (1673 – 14 March 1748) was a British Army officer who served in the Nine Years' War, War of the Spanish Succession, Jacobite rising of 1715 and War of the Quadruple Alliance before leading the construction of barra ...

linking Gretna to

Portpatrick Portpatrick is a village and civil parish in the historical county of Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. The parish is about in length and in breadth, covering . History ...

, then the main ferry port to Northern Ireland.Taylor, Christopher (1979). ''The Roads & Tracks of Britain''. London, Toronto and Melbourne: J. M. Dent & sons ltd. , Page 171. This was later to become the route of much of the

A75 road The A75 is a primary trunk road in Scotland, linking Stranraer and its ferry ports at Cairnryan with the A74(M) at Gretna, close to the border with England and the M6 motorway. Route Heading west along the south coast of Scotland from its j ...

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch, Dumfries and Galloway, Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshir ...

. The original route between Gretna and Annan is now the B721 road, and the A75 diverges significantly from it; similarly, the B724 was the original route between Annan and Dumfries.See for instance the re-scaled 1:50,000 Cassini Historical Maps, number 85, for ''Carlisle & Solway Firth'', Revised New Series 1901–1904 () and Popular Edition 1925 (). The main Anglo-Scottish trunk road running north–south through Gretna was the

A74 road The A74 also known historically as the Glasgow to Carlisle Road, is a formerly major road in the United Kingdom, linking Glasgow in Scotland to Carlisle in the North West of England, passing through Clydesdale, Annandale and the Southern Upland ...

. With the opening of the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at t ...

to the south of Carlisle in December 1970,Chatsworth, Table 7.3, pages 100–123. most of the A74 in Scotland was upgraded to motorway, these upgraded sections were renamed the A74(M). The ''Cumberland Gap'' was the remaining of non-upgraded dual-carriageway A74 between the northern terminus of the M6 at Carlisle. In 2008, the six remaining miles were upgraded to a three-lane motorway.

Sport

Gretna was the official home of Gretna Football Club, who played in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when the ...

during the 2007–2008 season. A reformed club, Gretna F.C. 2008 is based in Gretna. AFC Gretna are the town's amateur football team who like to give local players a chance. The club, based in the nearby Springfield, played in the DSAFL. However, they now play in the Carlisle City Sunday League system.

Gretna Green

Nearby

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was histori ...

, is traditionally associated with eloping English couples because of the more liberal marriage provisions in

Scots law Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland l ...

compared to

English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...

. Because of this, "Gretna" has become a term for a place for quick, easy marriages.''E.g.'', ''State v. Clay'', 182 Md. 639, 642, 35 A.2d 821, 822-23 (1944).

Shopping

Gretna Gateway Outlet Village is a shopping centre on the east side of Gretna. In 2021, this was renamed Caledonia Park.

References

Notes

Sources

* * Chatsworth, George (1984). ''A history of British motorways''. London: Thomas Telford Limited. . * Haldane, A.R.B. (1997). ''The Drove Roads of Scotland''. Edinburgh: Berlinn. . * Routledge, Gordon L. (1999).''Gretna’s Secret War''. * Ordnance Survey Landranger Map (number 85) – 1:50,000 scale (1.25 inches to 1 mile). . * Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (number 323) – 1:25,000 scale (2.5 inches to 1 mile)

External links

Gretna Registration OfficeCivil Parish Historical Tax Rolls for the Civil Parish of Gretna, Dumfriesshire, (Volumes 1-5)
{{authority control Towns in Dumfries and Galloway Parishes in Dumfries and Galloway