I am so glad after a long time planning we finally had our UK road trip to Scotland. Day one our plan was to head straight to Gretna Green. The Days Inn Gretna Green was to be our home for the first two nights of our trip. It was quite basic but did what we wanted and was reasonably priced so I couldn’t grumble really. Although I would say the only real downside was the room gets very warm, uncomfortably so. Other than that, it was a decent enough sized room for the four of us and it was conveniently placed for our plans. Plus, it came with free parking!

A World In Miniature Museum

We decided to stop off at the A World In Miniature Museum at the Houghton Hall Garden Centre on the way. It is only a 12 minute drive from Gretna Green (but in England). The ideal place to stop off for lunch too, the food there is lovely. A nice selection of meals available and friendly service. I always check TripAdvisor first to make sure customers have a favourable experience with a place. We did have a bit of a wait to get a table, but it gave us a chance to look around the lovely shop.

The museum is only small but well worth a visit. It only cost £6 for a family ticket. We spent probably 30 minutes looking at the exhibits. So, I thought it was good value for what we paid. Especially comparing it to later attractions we visited on the same trip. Let’s take Camera Obscura which cost £55.80 and was over and done in one hour! Saying that though that was a real highlight for my boys, so price and time spent over price and memories made need to be factored in too!

The miniatures really were incredible. There were over 50 different rooms to look at. The Theatre took 7/8 years to complete, and you can totally understand why with everything scaled down in remarkable detail. There was lots of information about the collections of miniatures, my eldest enjoyed reading about each one. They even have the world’s tiniest teddy bear on display at 3.5mm tall.

We were given a magnifying glass on arrival to use so we could have a good look around everything.

It was quite something seeing the level of craftsman’s art on display here. Making miniatures is a skill that requires infinite patience. We even saw a miniature of a miniature they had a 1/12 scale dolls house of a 1/12 scale dolls house. It was so tiny!

I loved the walled garden; it was so pretty with all the colourful flowers.

Gretna Green

After our stop off at the Miniature Museum we headed to Gretna Green. I liked having a picture with the two hands clasping, the sculpture is quite impressive at 13ft tall. We also had a bit of fun with other pictures too. You can add your face to a couple of different scenes as you can see from my feature picture.

It is probably advisable to arrive earlier in the day than we did. When we were there were quite a few weddings happening, so we didn’t get to venture inside the Blacksmiths Shop Museum and check out the marriage anvil as it was off limits during the ceremonies. Apparently if you touch the anvil, it brings you good luck with matters of the heart. Entrance costs £3.75 for adults and £3 for children (over 12).

It was still nice to pay a visit and soak up the atmosphere of such a romantic destination. It has a lot of history as Gretna Green allowed many couples to marry many years ago without the restrictions imposed on them by England and Wales. If you arrive before 3pm have a look at the courtship maze, which is shaped like two interlocking wedding rings. We also missed this but was happy to check out the love locks instead. I am not really a fan of mazes.