The town is situated 22 mi (35 km) east-south-east of Dumfries, 8 mi (13 km) east of Annan, 10 mi (16 km) north-west of Carlisle, 88 mi (142 km) south-east of Glasgow and 89.5 mi (144 km) south of Edinburgh.
History
Etymology
Gretna means "(place at the) gravelly hill", from Old Englishgreot "grit" (in the dative form greoten (which is where the -n comes from) and hoh "hill-spur".
The Lochmaben Stone is a megalith standing in a field, nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) 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.
Gretna's principal claim to fame arose in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was passed in England, which provided that consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents if both parties were not at least 21 years old. This Act did not apply in Scotland, which allowed boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12, with or without parental consent. The Act also required procedures that gave notice of an impending marriage to the community. As a result, many elopers fled England, and the first Scottish village they reached was often Gretna. The act was repealed in 1849.
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 on 23 August 1843. The station was renamed Gretna Green railway station in April 1852.[6] It closed on 6 December 1965, but a new station was opened by British Rail nearby on 20 September 1993. The station is served by Glasgow South Western Line.[6] 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 on its main line between Carlisle and Glasgow and Edinburgh.[6] The station closed on 10 September 1951.[6] The North British Railway built Gretna (Border Union) railway station next to the Caledonian station, at Gretna junction, on its short link to the Border Union Railway. The station opened on 1 November 1861 and closed during World War One on 9 August 1915.[6]
Roads
A military road was built in 1763 by General Wade linking Gretna to Portpatrick, then the main ferry port to Northern Ireland.[7] This was later to become the route of much of the A75 road to Stranraer. 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.[8]
The main Anglo-Scottish trunk road running north-south through Gretna was the A74 road. With the opening of the M6 motorway to the south of Carlisle in December 1970,[9] most of the A74 in Scotland was upgraded to motorway, these upgraded sections were renamed the A74(M). The Cumberland Gap was the remaining six miles (ten kilometres) 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.
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.
Border Towns United are another amateur football team in the town, formed in 2022. The club also play in the Carlisle City Sunday League system in the same league as AFC Gretna. They play at the Graitney.
Gretna Green
Nearby Gretna Green, is traditionally associated with eloping English couples because of the more liberal marriage provisions in Scots law compared to English law. Because of this, "Gretna" has become a term for a place for quick, easy marriages.[10]
Shopping
Gretna Gateway Outlet Village is a shopping centre on the east side of Gretna. In 2021, this was renamed Caledonia Park.
Media
Television
Local television news programmes that cover the town are:
^Taylor, Christopher (1979). The Roads & Tracks of Britain. London, Toronto and Melbourne: J. M. Dent & sons ltd. ISBN0-460-04329-3, Page 171.
^See for instance the re-scaled 1:50,000 Cassini Historical Maps, number 85, for Carlisle & Solway Firth, Revised New Series 1901–1904 (ISBN978-1-84736-369-5) and Popular Edition 1925 (ISBN978-1-84736-210-0).
