Shires of Scotland

Shires Of Scotland

The shires or counties of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachdan na h-Alba) are historic subdivisions of Scotland, and were local government areas until 1975. The country's current lieutenancy areas and registration counties are largely based on them.

Scottish shires each sent Commissioners (MPs) to the Scottish Parliament. They trace their origins to the mormaerdoms, stewartries and sheriffdoms of the High Middle Ages. Many of these early entities, while sharing a root of a name with a later shire, represent a greater or smaller area. The case of the Mormaerdom of Moray, which included parts the later shires of Moray, and of Nairnshire, Banffshire and Inverness-shire, is an example of this difference.

Counties became a basis of local government, alongside burghs, when 34 county councils were created in Scotland by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. These administrative counties resembled the traditional shires of Scotland, but not exactly. The most notable differences were that exclaves were abolished, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire were merged into Ross and Cromarty, and 4 'counties of cities' - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow - were created.

About 90 years later, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, these county authorities were abolished as local government bodies and were replaced with regions and districts and island council areas. The Areas for Lieutenancy, areas similar to those of the abolished counties, were created at the same time. Although the counties themselves no longer fulfil any administrative function, the boundaries of the majority remain in use by the Scottish Land Register as the registration counties - the only differences being that Glasgow forms a separate county from Lanarkshire, and Orkney and Zetland together form a combined county for these purposes. The boundaries also remained in use in an adapted form as postal counties until 1996.

Some of the names, such as Aberdeenshire, have been revived for the post-1996 council areas. Some also remain in use for area committees of the councils.