Essential Hotels > Scotland > Dumfries and Galloway > Gretna Green

Gretna Green is famous as the world’s wedding capital and has seen thousands and thousands of weddings take place over the years despite its small size. Picture the scene: English laws did not permit anyone under the age of 21 to marry unless parental consent was given but young lovers wanted to come together and celebrate a marriage ceremony and to spend the rest of their lives together. Where did they head? To the north of England and over the border into Scotland where the marriage laws were more lenient.

The village is the first settlement you come to after leaving England and is set near to the mouth of the River Esk. The wedding story began in 1753 when Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act was passed, details of which did not apply in Scotland. In fact, in Scotland, boys could get married at 14 and girls at 12 regardless of parental consent. So, perhaps chased by an angry father, elopers headed to Scotland where they could tie the knot.

The Old Blacksmith’s Shop became the focal point of the village’s wedding scene; indeed the blacksmith and his anvil have come to symbolise Gretna Green weddings. Just as the blacksmith brings together hot metal with metal over an anvil, so he came to unite fleeing couples over an anvil. They sought to use Scotland’s lenient marriage laws to make a bit of extra cash; among the so-called anvil priests in Gretna Green were David Lang, Granny Graham, Joseph Paisley, Richard Rennison, Robert Elliot and Simon Lang.

In later years, wedding laws were tightened up a little – from 1856 elopers were required to prove 21 days’ residence before marrying while in 1929 the law was changed so that couples had to be 16 years old. Meanwhile, an act was passed in 1940 which temporarily stopped anvil weddings in response to outrage from the Church based on moral grounds. This act was later repealed and in any case couples simply went to a registry office instead.

Today, the village is still a popular wedding destination with some 5,000 weddings held in Gretna Green each year. The Old Blacksmith’s Shop is a famous attraction and visitors can learn about the village’s often scandalous past. There is also an Exhibition Shop and Whisky House as well as a Tartan Shop and the Border Fine Arts Gallery in Gretna Green. Other cities and villages have followed suit and taken the lead from Gretna Green to host overnight weddings; a famous example is Reno in the USA.