GRETNA GREEN

On our way home, we stopped off at Gretna Green.

Gretna Green is a village on the Scottish border that is world-famous as a romantic wedding destination. First, over the border, it became a haven for young lovers following the 1754 Marriage Act introduced in England and Wales. You were forbidden to marry without your parents' permission if you were under 21. So the young and in love began eloping to Scotland, where it was much easier to marry. Gretna Green is synonymous with Anvil Weddings and it is the Blacksmith’s Shop where the tradition of an Anvil Wedding began. Legend has it that if you touch the famous Gretna Green anvil it brings you good fortune in affairs of the heart. It was here that the blacksmith would repair and make tools for the farms and shoe the horses. From 1754 the blacksmith in Gretna Green became notorious for a different kind of forging: joining couples in marriage.