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What
Were the Old Scottish Counties?
The
counties were areas of local government administration
based largely on the country's medieval sheriffdoms.
They varied enormously both in size and population - Perthshire,
for example, was 45 times bigger than Clackmannanshire.
By 1975 there were 31 counties (and four city counties).
For centuries they served Scotland well and most Scots were
proud to be linked with their home county.
However,
in 1975 the counties were abolished by a government
which, at best, had only minority support in Scotland, and
were replaced by the unloved and ill conceived Regions and
Districts. These lasted a bare 20 years and were themselves
replaced in 1997 by new administrative areas for which no-one
yet appears to have thought of a name.
No
politician can destroy centuries of tradition with the stroke
of a pen. Kincardineshire, Banffshire, Caithness, Kirkcudbrightshire
and so on may be deemed by our masters to exist no longer,
but happily Scots, both at home and abroad, continue to identify
with the old counties. In our view the abolition of the counties
was unnecessary, unpopular, and undemocratic and we are pleased
to produce kits depicting institutions that served Scotland
well for centuries and still live on in the hearts of the
Scottish people. We hope to have completed all the counties
by the end of this year.
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