Gretna formerly Gretenhowe then Gratnay, probably "how" or "hollow"of greeting". Old English "grétan" - "to greet". An alternative derivation is "(place at the) gravelly hill", from Old English "greoten" - "grit" and "hoh" - "hill-spur".
Old Graitney, just south of Gretna, is another older version of the name. (It is shown as Old Gretna on the earliest OS maps). A new road in Gretna reflects the old Gretenhowe spelling of the name. Solway - many suggested derivations, but the most likely seems to be from Solewath or Sulewad - names for an ancient ford, Sulwath Brewers explain the name thus: "The name 'Sulwath' is the ancient name for the Solway Estuary. This is reputed to date back to a ford, or crossing near the mouth of the river Esk which marked the border between Scotland and England around the 13th Century, and from general usage, the estuary became known as 'Sulwath'". Norse "wath" - "wade"; the "sol" or "sul" bit is more contentious, it could be from Old Scandinavian "súl" - "pillar" (referrring to the Lochmaben Stone) or Old English "sol" - "muddy". Undiscovered Scotland Wikipedia Wikipedia (GG)
The small River Sark forms the boundary between Scotland and England in this area and the bridges built over it helped determine the venues of some marriages. Gretna Green is slightly to the north of what became the main settlement of Gretna, it is now north of the railway, and at its eastern end merges with Springfield, a separate planned village established in 1791. Comparison with older maps is especially interesting (and complicated) for a number of reasons - some of the scanned maps of Scotland stop abruptly at the border (and telling the story of Gretna is a cross-border business); channels of the rivers flowing into the Solway Firth vary over time; and maps from the first half of the 20th century contain large apparently featureless areas around Eastriggs and Longtown, which were top secret munitions factories. The Border. The kingdoms of Northumbria and Strathclyde/Cumbria straddled the modern border and while there were countries called England and Scotland, England first became a modernly recognisable territory in 927. Scotland would take longer to bring together the various territories within its modern boundary, but had done so by about 1100 (though there were still parts whose loyalty to the Scottish crown was shaky). The Scottish victory at the Battle of Carham in 1018 saw the boundary move south to the Tweed. The Cheviot Hills were and are the boundary in the middle and the Kershope Burn and Liddel Water towards the west. south of them came the Debatable Lands - between the Esk and the Sark, until an agreement was reached in 1552 and a straight line was drawn and the Scots Dike dug tomark the border. There is a slight anomoly near Liddel Strength where the border now deviates from the Liddel Water for about 100 yards. I've not seen anythng about this, but can only assume that it reflects a move in the course of the river - possibly associated with the construction of the railway. Maps: 1858 1864 which suggests the border is passing through a pond to the east of the railway. Old maps: 1858 OS six inch 1947 OS 6th Series OS 1920s-1940s series Gretna & WhiskyGretna has a whisky shop as part of the Gretna Green Ltd complex, on my visit to the shop in 20??, I recall noting that the prices were extortionate. (Example - Highland Park 12yo TWE 6/12/17 - £30.95; Gretna Green 2/7/12 - £47.99). That having been said, the whiskies available in the online shop are limited and while not as cheap as elsewhere, not outrageous. There's a proper Whisky Shop in Dumfries - TB Watson (aka Drambusters) (27 miles).
Nearest distillery - Annandale (10 miles). Next nearest is in England! - Lakes DIstillery (33 miies). Alcohol laws and Gretna - the alcohol consumption of munitions factory workers (and others) during WWI concerned the government so much that regulation and licensing were introduced. NearbyEngland - a country with a rather poor distilleries:population ratio - though it is improving.
Eastriggs was another township originating from WWI to support the HM Factory Gretna munitions factory. It is now home to the Devil's Porridge Museum on part of the former munitions site. Arthur Conan Doyle having visited the factory commented: "The nitroglycerin on the one side and the gun-cotton on the other are kneaded into a sort of a devil's porridge". The 1916 timetable for the railway line shows 7 additional workmen's trains arriving at Dornock (later re-named Eastriggs) station in 26 minutes. Though called workmen's trains, most of the workers were actually women. Eastriggs now calls itself the Commonwealth Village - its streets were named after notable places around the (then) British Empire, reflecting the nationalities of the workers who came to the munitions factory. Kirkpatrick-Fleming is a small village some 3.5 miles north west of Gretna Green, which had a railway station on the main line until 1960. Robert the Bruce's Cave where he took refuge and gained inspiration from a spider in 1306 is claimed to have been located near the village. The Station Inn B7076 01461 800600 Kirkpatrick House B&B Off B6537 south of village 01461 800355/07776 075686 The Mill Forge B7076 east of village 01461 800344 Kirtlebridge - another small village a further 3 miles alongside the motorway from Kirkpatrick-Fleming, and about 5 miles from Annan. The village features several towers - fortifications from the time of the Border Reivers - Bonshaw Tower; Rogbill Tower and Woodhouse Tower. Kirtlebridge had a station on the main line, and was the junction for the Solway Junction Railway through Annan, and across the Solway Viaduct. The Village Inn Kirtlebridge 01461 500221/07810 303839 Broadlea of Robgill Kirtlebridge 01461 500503/07891 796526/07980 514095 Rigg is an tiny settlement just outside Gretna, that doesn't appear to have any real web presence. It did have a railway station between 1904 and 1940. Longtown (England) is a prominent town just over the border from Gretna, and was the other end of HM Factory Gretna in WWI. It lies just south of the River Esk and was initially planned by the Rev Robert Graham in the 1750s. The Battle of Solway Moss took place near Longtown on 24 November 1542, where the Scots were routed by English forces. Though few on either side were killed in the battle, many Scots drowned afterwards and 1,200 were taken prisoner. King James V who had planned to lead the attack into England, did not do so due to illness, some sources suggest his condition was worsened by news of the defeat, in any event he died on 14 December - his daughter born on 8 December, thus became Mary, Queen of Scots when less than a week old. Unusually, there are some errors in the Undiscovered Scotland page, which has confused the River Eden with the Esk, which is the one that runs past Longtown. (I have e-mailed them in respect of this, so hopefully corrections will be made soon). Longtown was on the Waverley route to Edinburgh and had a station between 1861 and 1969, which has since been demolished. There is a rail link to DSDA Longtown, which is still a large ammunition store on the site of the old munitions factory. Longtown is now a major livestock market. Graham Arms Hotel English Street 01228 791213 Home From Home B&B 6 English Street 01228 792474 The Sycamore Tree 40-42 Bridge Street 01228 791919 Railways and GretnaWhisky and the Border - the coming of the railway to Gretna (apart from simplifying the access for eloping couples), also caused problems for HM Customs. At the time it was illegal to import Scotch Whisky to England in quantities of less than 20 gallons - not surprisingly smuggling became rife!
Gretna's stations - Gretna Green soon had a station when the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway was opened in 1848 (though until 1852 it was called Gretna). The station after Gretna (heading towards Carlisle) was also called Gretna (on the Caledonian Railway - this sort of confusion was fairly common then). Gretna Green was closed by BR in 1965, and the line to Annan singled in 1975. It remained closed for only 18 years, when a new station was built slightly to the west of the old one - it got a second platform in 2008 when the line to Annan was re-doubled. The Caledonian Railway station called Gretna was on what would become the West Coast mainline, and was opened in 1847, just south of the border. It remained in place until 1951, and was joined from 1861 to 1915 by a terminus station built by the Border Union Railway (BUR) - for its route to Edinburgh which became known as the Waverley Route - this stations was called Gretna. Little is known about the military railway, but according to the OS 6th series map, it built a branch to the former BUR station. The Historic Scotland booklet on Gretna suggests that there was a railway branch from the main line that went down Central Avenue. I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere, but the OS 1920s-1940s series map does show a curved track from the railway to the township - and the curved field boundary can still be seen in satellite images today. The narrow gauge (2ft) HM Factory Gretna Military Railway which was constructed between Eastriggs, Gretna and Longtown isn't shown on many maps, presumably like the sites it linked it was secret, but does finally appear on the OS One-Inch 6th Series maps of the late 1940s - the sites themselves are still not shown. This was certainly used to transport materials between the sites, whether it was also used to transport workers, I've not been able to ascertain. This was the ninth and final crossing of the border by railways (3 on the Waverley Route - as it crosses and re-crosses a kink in the boundary near Liddel Strength then the proper crossing at Kershopefoot; the Langholm Branch; the Border Counties line near Deadwater; the Kelso - Tweedmouth line near Carham; and the East and West Coast mainline crossings that are the only two that survive). There is a trailer available on YouTube for a 46 minute DVD on the Longtown Military Raiway, which also includes footage of Eastriggs narrow gauge system. |
Gretna Green owes its reputation to the vagaries of English and Scottish law on marriage from 1754. Graitney, as it was then known, got in on the act when a toll road was built through the village in the 1770s, and it became the most easily accessible place in Scotland in which to take advantage of the more lax Scottish marriage laws. Though there has been no legal incentive to marry in Scotland since 195? the reputation of Gretna Green and the industry built around that reputation have allowed it to claim to be the marriage capital.
Gretna owes its existence to WWI - it was established to house workers for the 9 mile long HM Factory Gretna munitions factories established at 4 sites between Eastriggs and Longtown. Prior to WWI maps show only a few scattered farms (Surrone, Sark Foot, Sarkbridge and Old Gretna), and the Annan Road south of the railway line. Historic Scotland has produced a booklet about Gretna - a Munitions Town, which can be downloaded. Much of Gretna Green is owned by Gretna Green Ltd a family owned company that bought the whole area in 1876 and has developed it substantially as a tourist destination, with a very heavy wedding emphasis. Their website is comprehensive in terms of the history of Gretna Green, but it is the site of the company and therefore promoting its activities, rather than the community. Interesting blog on Gretna Green marriages. The Dumfrieshire Companion gives a more cynical view of the development of Gretna Green. The biggest rail disaster in Britain took place in 1915 at Quintinshill just north of Gretna Green, when a troop train collided with a stationary local train and a minute later the wreck was struck by an express train - the gas lighting the carriages in the express caused the trains to be engulfed in fire. The official death toll was 227, mostly soldiers from Leith bound for Gallipoli. National Records of Scotland site has more on the disaster. The Lochmaben Stone, previously known as Clochmabenstane, this has no direct connection with the village of Lochmaben, though both names are thought to have derived from an ancient Celtic god Maponos earlier maps (eg 1843 six inch) have it labelled as the Remains of Druidical Circle. One other stone is still viisble, but the others are believed to have been removed in the mid-1800s to facilitate ploughing the field. The stone had served as a meeting point for English and Scottish officials prior to the Union. It is also said to have been the northern marker for a ford of the Solway. The Battle of Sark aka Battle of Lochmaben Stone took place in 1448. The English had destroyed Dunbar and Dumfries that year, and the Scots had retaliated by destroying Alnwick and Warkworth. An English invasion force camped near the Lochmaben Stone - the Scots advanced after an initial English volley of arrows, and routed the English, many of whom were forced back into the rising tide of the Solway Firth and drowned. Arriving & DepartingOpen Cycle Map Bing Map
Gretna is on National Cycle Route 7 and National Cycle Route 74. Currently the Open Cycle Map and OS 1:25k maps show NCN7 taking an 11 mile loop around Longtown and Corries Mill between Floristonrigg and Gretna - which is actually only 4 miles away. When I cycled this route in 2013 the direct route along the old A74 (now unclassified) alongside the M6, was signed as NCN7. Gretna Green (GEA) rail station has level access to Platform 1 through car park on Glasgow Road, ramped bridge gives access to Platform 2 with fairly regular trains to Carlisle - some of which go on to Newcastle and an irregular service to Kilmarnock and Glasgow - except on Sundays when the service is disgraceful - first train 1324 - and not many more - only 5 each way to Carlisle & two each way to Glasgow all day! Live train times. SleepingAlexander GH Glasgow Road 01461 337056
Fern Lea GH Glasgow Road 01461 337267 The Gables Hotel 1 Annan Road 01461 338300 The Gretna Chase Hotel Sark Bridge, England 01461 337517 The Gretna Inn 121 Annan Road 01461 337465 Rhone Villa B&B Gretna Loaning 01461 338758 Greenlaw GH Gretna Loaning 01461 338758 Solway Lodge Hotel 97-99 Annan Road 01461 338266 Surrone House Annan Road 01461 338341 For other accommodation - see Gretna Green Ltd, Gretna Online and Booking.com etc EatingThe Gables Hotel 1 Annan Road 01461 338300
The Gretna Chase Hotel Sark Bridge, England 01461 337517 The Gretna Inn 121 Annan Road 01461 337465 DrinkingThe Gables Hotel 1 Annan Road 01461 338300 MW
The Gretna Chase Hotel Sark Bridge, England 01461 337517 The Gretna Inn 121 Annan Road 01461 337465 Queens Head Springfield 01461 337173 MW RA CyclingNothing in Gretna
Nearest bike shops (Longtown, England - 4 miles): Bike Seven Unit 2, Sandilands 01228 792497 Also in Carlisle (11 miles) 1 Market Street 01228 739926
TriviaIn the book The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams, Gretna Green is defined as "A shade of green which makes you wish you'd painted whatever it was a different colour."
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Photos on this page were taken by me. Click on photo to enlarge. Full size versions of these and my other pictures are available on Flickr -
Gretna: https://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157667212949839
Eastriggs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157661387625377
Gretna: https://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157667212949839
Eastriggs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157661387625377