Gretna (Scottish Gaelic: Greatna) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, originally part of the historic county of Dumfriesshire.

Gretna means "(place at the) gravelly hill", from Old English greot "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.

Prior to the Acts of Union 1707 of the Parliaments of England and Scotland, Gretna was a customs post for collecting taxes on cattle crossing the border between the two kingdoms.

[4] A drove road was constructed between Gretna and Annan in 1619, possibly to facilitate the transportation of cattle from Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire to markets in England.

This Act did not apply in Scotland, which allowed boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12, with or without parental consent.

[6] A military road was built in 1763 by General Wade linking Gretna to Portpatrick, then the main ferry port to Northern Ireland.

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.

AFC Gretna are the town's amateur football team who like to give local players a chance.