Blacksmith Weddings on Scotland's Romantic Tour
Gretna Green in Scotland this year celebrates 250 years of the Marriage Act, which turned the little coaching stop in Dumfries and Galloway into a world-renowned capital of romance. The Dumfries & Galloway Tourist Board has made Gretna Green the start of a five-day Romance Trail, which includes places linked with the local romantic poet Robert Burns The 1754 act of parliament made marriage under the age of 21 illegal in England and Wales without parental and church consent - so thousands of young couples headed north to Gretna Green, the first village on the Scottish side of the border.
As a coaching stop, it had a blacksmith, and the legend grew that by touching the anvil the couple would have good fortune in affairs of the heart.
The tradition of the ‘anvil priests’ lasted until the 1940s, and has recently been revived in more formal circumstances, but ceremonies are still concluded by the sounding of the blacksmith's hammer. Today, 4,000 ceremonies are performed there each year.
Full details of the Romance Trail itinerary may be found at
www.visitdumfriesandgalloway.co.uk
For more details on Gretna Green visit
www.gretnagreen.com
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