Unusual Wedding Venues in Scotland

Weddings are invariably special occasions and to make the day memorable, couples in Scotland are always on the look out for something different. Choosing an unusual venue for the civil wedding is one way of making it memorable.

It is not uncommon in Scotland to tie the knot in a castle or a botanical garden or even the College of Physicians and Surgeons! The first civil marriage conducted at a place other than churches and register offices was in 2002, at the Busta House Hotel, in Shetland. Clubs, restaurants and hotels have been popular locations for weddings but Scotland is not the only country where this happens. Some of the places approved for a civil marriage in Scotland are truly unique.

The Falkirk Wheel in central Scotland which is the worlds only rotating Boat Lift is one such venue. The wheel constructed to 21st century, state-of-the-art engineering is the showpiece of Millennium Canal Link project designed to link the Union and Forth and Clyde canals. Can you imagine saying ‘I do’ in a rotating boat lift?

The Wallace Monument is a historic 220 feet high monument to William Wallace built in1867 on the Abbey Craig and a distinctive venue for weddings in Scotland. Another historic site for a wedding is in the Outer Hebrides where the prehistoric Callanish standing stones on the picturesque Isle of Lewis are mute witnesses to the ceremony.

Only the brave would have ventured here a hundred years ago, but it is not unheard of today to hold a wedding ceremony in the Jedburgh Castle Jail, the 19th century Howard Reform prison on the site of the Royal Castle of Jedburgh in the Borders. Another well loved location is Rob Roy’s birthplace at Monachyle Mhor in the Trossachs.

Golf courses and ships have always been popular venues and weddings take place on the Napoleonic frigate ‘Unicorn’, docked in Dundee. When the cruise vessels the Jacobite Spirit and the Royal Scot are chosen there is always a chance of an unexpected, uninvited guest, as they sail on Loch Ness!

People have got married at the Kirkintilloch Miners Welfare Club in Glasgow and Pizza Express in Stirling and can now probably look forward to wed surrounded by designer labels at Harvey Nichols, the exclusive retailer in Edinburgh which may become the first store in Scotland to gain a civil marriage licence.