User:Morwen/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 as postal counties until 1996; now their main use is traditional, with official usage limited to the Land Registry. Some of the names have been revived for the post-1996 council areas.

Original counties
The original counties were as follows:

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. Cromarty-shire is particularly fragmentary, and its borders were achieved as late as 1685.

Counties from 1890s
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. The only significant exclave left was the part of Dunbartonshire between Stirlingshire and Lanarkshire.