 | Counties of Scotland: Encyclopedia - Counties of Scotland
Counties of Scotland
Scotland was, until 1975, divided into counties for the purposes of local government and other government functions such as the lieutenancy. The counties originated prior to the Union with England, and continued as both administrative and ceremonial units until their abolition in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, when they were replaced with regions and districts and the areas for Lieutenancy.
The counties remained in use in adapted form as postal counties until 1996; now their main use is traditional. Some of the names have been revived for the post-1996 council areas and some of their areas remain in use as Lieutenancy areas and area committees of the present councils. The Scottish Land Register is organised by the counties, although includes Glasgow seperately and combines Orkney and Shetland.
The counties had their origin in the sheriffdoms created as administrative divisions in Scotland generally in the 12th century and 13th century, based on the English model of shires. [1]
Counties of Scotland - Original counties
The original counties were as follows:
- Caithness
- Sutherland
- Ross-shire
- Cromartyshire
- Inverness-shire
- Nairnshire
- Morayshire
- Banffshire
- Aberdeenshire
- Kincardineshire
- Angus
- Perthshire
- Argyll
- Bute
- Ayrshire
- Renfrewshire
- Dunbartonshire
- Stirlingshire
- Clackmannanshire
- Kinross-shire
- Fife
- West Lothian
- Mid Lothian
- East Lothian
- Berwickshire
- Roxburghshire
- Dumfriesshire
- Kirkcudbrightshire
- Wigtownshire
- Lanarkshire
- Selkirkshire
- Peeblesshire
Not shown:
Zetland (Shetland)
Orkney
It may be noted that the map depicts a large number of exclaves of counties, physically detatched from the county that they were politically deemed to be part of. Cromartyshire is particularly fragmentary, and its borders were achieved as late as 1685.
Several counties had alternate names
- Angus / Forfarshire
- Moray / Elginshire
- East Lothian / Haddingtonshire
- Midlothian / Edinburghshire
- West Lothian / Linlithgowshire
Dunbartonshire was also spelt 'Dumbartonshire' - the latter form would be more regular, as the county town remains Dumbarton. Kirkcudbrightshire was (and is) commonly called the 'Stewartry of Kirkcudbright', or just 'the Stewartry'.
List of burghs in Scotland, Regions of Scotland, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, Subdivisions of Scotland, List of places in Scotland
Counties of Scotland - Counties from 1890-1975
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 established county councils in Scotland. Unlike in England and Wales, where corresponding legislation created new entities called administrative counties, the Act amended the existing counties, including merging Ross-shire and Cromartyshire into Ross and Cromarty, and set up a boundary commission to make further changes as necessary. Generally speaking, exclaves were abolished, the only significant exclave left untouched being the part of Dunbartonshire between Stirlingshire and Lanarkshire.
The administrative counties excluded from their area the four 'counties of cities' in Scotland - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. These are not shown on the map below as separate entities.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 created two joint county councils covering Perthshire and Kinross-shire, and Morayshire and Nairnshire, but retained residual Nairnshire and Kinross-shire county councils. [2] Under the same act parish councils throughout Scotland were abolished in 1930.
- Caithness
- Sutherland
- Ross and Cromarty
- Inverness-shire
- Nairnshire
- Morayshire
- Banffshire
- Aberdeenshire
- Kincardineshire
- Angus
- Perthshire
- Argyll
- Bute
- Ayrshire
- Renfrewshire
- Dunbartonshire
- Stirlingshire
- Clackmannanshire
- Kinross-shire
- Fife
- East Lothian
- Mid Lothian
- West Lothian
- Lanarkshire
- Peeblesshire
- Selkirkshire
- Berwickshire
- Roxburghshire
- Dumfriesshire
- Kirkcudbrightshire
- Wigtownshire
Not shown:
Zetland (Shetland)
Orkney
See also
- List of burghs in Scotland
- Regions of Scotland
- Lieutenancy areas of Scotland
- Subdivisions of Scotland
- List of places in Scotland
Other related archives12th century, 13th century, 1685, 1975, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Bute, Caithness, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumbarton, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, Dundee, East Lothian, Edinburgh, England, Fife, Glasgow, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Lieutenancy areas, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, List of burghs in Scotland, List of places in Scotland, Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, Mid Lothian, Morayshire, Nairnshire, Orkney, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Regions of Scotland, Renfrewshire, Ross and Cromarty, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Scotland, Selkirkshire, Stirlingshire, Subdivisions of Scotland, Sutherland, Wales, West Lothian, Wigtownshire, Zetland, administrative counties, area committees, areas for Lieutenancy, council areas, county councils, exclaves, lieutenancy, parish, postal counties, regions and districts, sheriffdoms, traditional
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Counties of Scotland", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
