Gretna, Dumfries Shire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Gretna. You may be able to find further references to Gretna in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Graitney parish Bartholomew
Gretna (or Graitney) parish Bartholomew
Gretna or Graitney a Border village and parish Groome

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Gretna.

Place Type of entry Source
Browhouses a village and a bay Groome
Camphouse place supposed to have been site of Roman fort Bartholomew
Camphouse a place Groome
Mount Pleasant school Bartholomew
Rigg village Bartholomew
Springfield village Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Gretna within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
George Head The Solway Coast 6

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Kirkandrews Nether 0 1
Solway Moss 0 1
Browhouses 0 2
Kirkpatrick Fleming 0 1
Castletown 0 2
Kirkandrews Middle 0 1
Longtown 3 2
Beck 0 2
Rockcliffe 1 2
Half Morton 0 2
Westlinton 0 2
Dykesfield 0 2
Longburgh 0 2
Beaumont 0 2
Kirkandrews upon Esk 0 2
Burgh By Sands 3 2
Dornock 0 2
Netherby 3 2
Drumburgh 1 2
Arthuret 0 1

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Gretna. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
GRAITNEY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
GRETNA John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
GRETNA OR GRAITNEY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.