Hidden Scotland
Sign in
A guide in a tartan sash leads a couple's handfasting beside the anvil in the old Blacksmiths Shop.
Dumfries and Galloway

Handfasting at Gretna Green

Tie the knot the old Celtic way: a tartan ribbon wrapped around your joined hands at Gretna Green, in the museum's Elopement Room or beside the fire at the new Forge.

Visit websiteCall
Welcome

Long before rings and registrars, couples in Scotland marked their promise by having their hands bound together.

At Gretna Green you can do it too. One of the guides tells you the story of the tradition, then wraps a tartan ribbon around your joined hands as a sign of love and commitment. Choose the Elopement Room in the Famous Blacksmiths Shop museum, or the glow of the new working Forge. It's a lovely, quietly moving way to mark a visit, an anniversary or a proposal in the village where so many couples have made their promises.

Before you go
How long
15 minutes
Cost
£99 a couple, booked online with a small fee
Where
The Elopement Room in the Famous Blacksmiths Shop museum, or the new working Forge.
Good to know
A symbolic ceremony, not a legal wedding: about 15 minutes, just the two of you, and you keep the ribbon. Bring your own camera.
Booking ahead
Some times open 60 days ahead, the rest 28 days ahead; on the day if there is space.
Book
Online at gretnagreen.com, or call 01461 336 001.
Getting here
Free parking on site, just off the M74 (locked 6pm to 8am); Gretna Green station is a short walk.
Dogs
Welcome across most of the site, though not in the restaurants or the Larder shop.

Did you know

A couple face each other across the Gretna Green Marriage Anvil as a tartan ribbon is wrapped round their hands.
Did you know

True or false: the saying 'tying the knot' comes from the Scottish custom of handfasting.

False, though it is a lovely story and you will hear it often. The idea of a marriage knot is in English by the 1200s, and the phrase itself turns up in a poem of 1717, but nobody knows for sure where it came from. Handfasting, binding a couple's hands as they make their promise, is an old custom all the same, and at Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway you can have your hands tied in tartan ribbon beside the marriage anvil.

A guide in a tartan sash leads a couple's handfasting beside the anvil in the old Blacksmiths Shop.
Did you know

In which year did marriage by simple declaration, the custom that drew runaway couples to Gretna Green, come to an end?

1940. From 1754, when England began to require a parent's consent for anyone under 21, couples raced over the border to Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway, where a declaration before two witnesses made them married. The Marriage (Scotland) Act of 1939 ended that kind of marriage from July 1940. Gretna Green never stopped being a place to wed, though: couples still marry over the anvil today, now in full civil or religious ceremonies, and handfastings are held beside it too.

A smiling couple stand at the marriage anvil with their hands tied in tartan, under a carved heart arch.
Did you know

Gretna Green hosted fewer than 100 weddings a year in the mid-1970s, and a record 5,555 in 2004.

The runaway marriages ended in 1940, and for a while the village in Dumfries and Galloway was quiet. Then the weddings came back, this time by choice rather than escape: by 2000 there were more than 5,000 a year, and in 2004 there were 5,555, a record, according to the National Records of Scotland. Couples still come from all over the world to say their vows over the anvil, and for those who want something simpler, there is a 15-minute handfasting with a tartan ribbon.

01 / 04
Where it is

At Gretna Green, just over the border on the A74(M): the Elopement Room in the Famous Blacksmiths Shop museum, or the new working Forge.

Close by
  1. Gretna GreenGretna GreenThe first village over the border, where runaway couples married at an anvil.Under a mile 1 min by road
  2. Gretna Green Guided TourGretna Green Guided TourUnder a mile as the crow flies
  3. The First Sip of Scotland, Gretna GreenThe First Sip of Scotland, Gretna GreenUnder a mile as the crow flies
  4. The First Taste of Scotland, Gretna GreenThe First Taste of Scotland, Gretna GreenUnder a mile as the crow flies
  5. The Couples Experience at the Gretna Green ForgeThe Couples Experience at the Gretna Green ForgeA private 90 minutes at Gretna Green's working forge, where a couple make an entwined-hearts keepsake alongside the resident blacksmith.Under a mile as the crow flies
  6. The Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green ForgeThe Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green ForgeAn hour at your own anvil in Gretna Green's forge, learning the basics of blacksmithing and making a fireside poker to take home.Under a mile as the crow flies
Directions
The blacksmith works the big iron coin press at the Gretna Green Forge while a visitor in a striped jumper looks on.ActivityThe Forge Experience at Gretna GreenA step away
White cottage buildings with sign for Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths ShopAttractionsGretna Green Old Blacksmiths ShopA step away
Wooden sculpture of two clasped hands rising against a pale skyAttractionsThe Big Dance (the Clasping Hands), Gretna GreenA step away
White building with sign for The Devil's Porridge Museum behind a stone wallAttractionsThe Devil's Porridge Museum4.8 miles
Wooden washbacks line a distillery hall with exposed brick walls and timber roof beamsAttractionsAnnandale Distillery8.9 miles
Grassy shoreline overlooking mudflats and distant hills across the firthAttractionsThe Annan Shore Walk8.9 miles
Spending A Day In Scotland’s Debatable LandsAttractionsGilnockie Tower9.7 miles
Cottage room with black cast-iron range, tartan mantel and spinning wheel beside the windowAttractionsThomas Carlyle's Birthplace9.9 miles
The Daily for 18 October, from Scotland with love. Golden-hour light catches a shadowed mountain above a loch, rust-coloured moorland in the foreground

The Daily

Arrives at 5am every day.

A free morning email to see what’s on this week, catch up on what’s happening in Scotland and find somewhere new to go.

Hidden Scotland, the magazine

Scotland, in print.

We want to show you the best that Scotland has to offer. The makers and the creatives, the enduring experiences, the evocative tales, the concealed corners. The roads less travelled that take you to places that matter. The adventures that gather you up and sweep you away. The blend of the wild and the artistic that makes Scotland what it is. We’d love for you to join us.

Get Issue 13Read it here
Find out more

For further reading, before you go.