The history of local government in Scotland is a complex tale of largely ancient and long established Scottish political units being replaced after the mid 20th century by a frequently changing series of different local government arrangements.
Origins
Anciently, the territory now referred to as Scotland belonged to a mixture of Brythonic groups (Picts and Cumbrians) and Angles.
The Picts were based north of the Forth–Clyde line, traditionally in seven kingdoms: Cat (the far north) Ce (from Deeside to Speyside) Circinn (southeast of the Cairngorms, roughly between the Isla and Dee) Fib (the Fife peninsula) Fotla (an expanded Atholl) Fortriu (the areas to the north and west of the Grampians, including the Great Glen, and extending to the Atlantic coast, and as far north as the Dornoch Firth) Fidach (unknown location).
In later legends Albanactus, the legendary founder of Scotland, had seven sons, who each founded a kingdom. De Situ Albanie enumerates the kingdoms in two lists, the first of which locates the seventh kingdom between the Forth and the Earn, while the second additionally replaces Cat with the area that became Dalriada.
The Cumbrians were based in the southwest, in two principal kingdoms: Rheged (the lands bordering the Solway Firth, stretching as far as modern Cumbria) Strathclyde
The Angles were based in the southeast, in the Kingdom of Northumbria, which was divided into a number of sub-kingdoms, some of which were located in territory now considered part of Scotland: Lothian (bordering the Firth of Forth) Bernicia (bordering the North Sea, as far south as the Tees)
When the Irish group Scotii invaded, they established the Kingdom of Dál Riata in the area between Glen Coe and Loch Long, which they organised into four geographic kin-groups: Cenél nÓengusa (Islay) Cenél Loairn (the area around the Firth of Lorn, including Mull) Cenél nGabráin (Kintyre and Knapdale) Cenél Comgaill (Cowal and the Isle of Bute)
Alba
For reasons which are extremely opaque to historical enquiry, most of the Pictish lands became a kingdom of the Scotii based at Scone – the Kingdom of Alba. The statuses of Fortriu and Dalriada are extremely unclear; it seems that theoretically they were meant to owe some form of vassalage to the King of Alba, but in practice were somewhat independent. The other Pictish kingdoms were divided up, with the King of Alba retaining the more useful coastal parts, while handing the remainder of each former kingdom to a powerful governor. The king controlled his lands through a number of stewards ( in Gaelic), hence the powerful governors were great stewards ( in Gaelic).
Northumbrian pressure caused Rheged to collapse, establishing Galloway as an independent state. Strathclyde took the opportunity created by Rheged's collapse to expand towards the southeast, into what is now northern Cumbria. Records are unclear, but it seems that Scotii raids led to Galloway submitting to the authority of Alba, and the transfer of Carrick from Strathclyde to Galloway.
Danish invasions caused the power of Northumbria to collapse, and ultimately its lands to become parts of a unified England. Meanwhile, Norse invasions of the islands to the north and west of the mainland conquered Cat, and established: Norðreyjar ("northern isles"), divided into: Shetland Orkney Caithness (the northern part of Cat) Sutherland (the southern part of Cat) Suðreyjar ("southern isles"; the Hebrides, Arran, and the Isle of Man)
Norse invaders also besieged Dumbarton Rock, the capital of Strathclyde, eventually causing its defeat. As a result, Dunbarton Rock was abandoned, and Strathclyde moved its capital upriver, to Partick. Alba took the opportunity to seize the now-undefended area around Loch Lomond. Similarly, the weakening of Northumbria enabled Alba to push south and take over the area around Stirling.
By the 10th century, the governance of the area now known as Scotland thus broke down as follows:
Former ethnicity Former area Outcome StatusPictishCatCaithnessNorse jarldomSutherlandNorse jarldomCeBuchanMormaerdomBanffStewardryMarMormaerdomCircinnMearnsStewardryAngusMormaerdomFibFothriffStewardryFifeMormaerdomFotlaGowrieStewardryAthollMormaerdom(possibly Fidach)MenteithMormaerdomStrathearnMormaerdomFortriuRossMormaerdomMorayQuasi-independentCumbric(Scottish) RhegedGallowayQuasi-independent vassalStrathclydeLennoxMormaerdomStrathclyde (remainder)IndependentAnglianLothianStirlingStewartryLothian (remainder)English ealdormandom(Scottish) Bernicia(Scottish) BerniciaEnglish ealdormandomGaelicnÓengusaIslayNorse jarldomLoairnMullNorse jarldomLornQuasi-independent vassalnGabráinArgyllQuasi-independent vassalComgaill
Middle ages Provinces
In the later medieval period, government combined traditional kinship-based lordships with a relatively small system of royal offices. Until the 15th century the ancient pattern of major lordships survived largely intact, with the addition of two new "scattered earldoms" of Douglas and Crawford, thanks to royal patronage after the Wars of Independence, mainly in the borders and south-west. The dominant kindred were the Stewarts, who came to control many of the earldoms. Their acquisition of the crown, and a series of internal conflicts and confiscations, meant that by around the 1460s the monarchy had transformed its position within the realm, gaining control of most of the "provincial" earldoms and lordships. Rather than running semi-independent lordships, the major magnates now had scattered estates and occasional regions of major influence. In the lowlands the crown was now able to administer government through the system of sheriffdoms and other appointed officers, rather than semi-independent lordships. In the highlands James II created two new provincial earldoms for his favourites: Argyll for the Campbells and Huntly for the Gordons, which acted as a bulwark against the vast Lordship of the Isles built up by the Macdonalds. James IV largely resolved the Macdonald problem by annexing the estates and titles of John Macdonald II to the crown in 1493 after discovering his plans for an alliance with the English.A. MacKay and D. Ditchburn, eds, Atlas of Medieval Europe (London: Routledge, 1997), , p. 179.
The shires of Scotland have their origins in the sheriffdoms or shires over which a sheriff (a contraction of shire reeve) exercised jurisdiction. The term shire is somewhat misleading, as it should not be confused with an English county. In medieval Latin, the latter was referred to as a comitatus which, in Scotland, was the region controlled as a province or lordship (as opposed, for example, to a Lairdship), such as a mormaerdom, or an early Earldom, and typically survived as a regality (though this is a broader term encompassing also more junior authority). Shire instead came into use, in Scotland, to refer to the region in which a particular sheriff operated; in Scottish medieval Latin this was sometimes called the vice-comitatus. Malcolm III appears to have introduced sheriffs as part of a policy of replacing native "Celtic" forms of government with Anglo Saxon and Norman feudal structures.John of Fordun wrote that Malcolm II introduced the shire to Scotland and also the thane class. Shires are mentioned in charters by the reign of King Malcolm III, for instance that to the Church of Dunfermline, AD 1070–1093. This was continued by his sons Edgar, Alexander I and in particular David I. David completed the division of the country into sheriffdoms by the conversion of existing thanedoms.The earliest sheriffdom south of the Forth which we know of for certain is Haddingtonshire, which is named in a charters of 1139 as Hadintunschira (Charter by King David to the church of St. Andrews of the church of St. Mary at Haddington) and of 1141 as Hadintunshire (Charter by King David granting Clerchetune to the church of St. Mary of Haddington). In 1150 a charter refers to Madolyn Stirlingshire (Striuelinschire).(Charter by King David granting the church of Clackmannan, etc., to the Abbey of Stirling) Many of the shires were directly analogous to existing provinces (e.g. the province of Teviotdale and the shire of Roxburgh), whilst other formed from combinations of provinces (e.g. the shire of Ayr consisting of Cunninghame, Carrick and Kyle).
Founding of the Burghs
The first burghs existed from the 12th century, when King David I (r. 1124–1153) established Edinburgh, Stirling, Dunfermline, Perth, Dumfries, Jedburgh, Montrose and Lanark as Royal Burghs.J Mackay, The Convention of Royal Burghs of Scotland, From its Origin down to the Completion of the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1707, Co-operative Printing, Edinburgh 1884, p.2 Most of the burghs granted charters in his reign probably already existed as settlements. Charters were copied almost verbatim from those used in England,G. W. S. Barrow, Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), , p. 98. and early burgesses were usually invited English and Flemish settlers.A. MacQuarrie, Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), , pp. 136–140. They were able to impose tolls and fines on traders within a region outside their settlements. Most of the early burghs were on the east coast, and among them were the largest and wealthiest, including Aberdeen, Berwick, Perth, and Edinburgh, whose growth was facilitated by trade with other North Sea ports on Continental Europe, in particular in the Low Countries, as well as ports on the Baltic Sea. In the south-west, Glasgow, Ayr and Kirkcudbright were aided by the less profitable sea trade with Ireland and to a lesser extent France and Spain.
Burghs were typically settlements under the protection of a castle and usually had a market place, with a widened high street or junction, marked by a mercat cross, beside houses for the burgesses and other inhabitants. 16 royal burghs can trace their foundation to David I traced to the reign of David I (1124–53)K. J. Stringer, "The Emergence of a Nation-State, 1100–1300", in J. Wormald (ed.), Scotland: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), , pp. 38–76. and there is evidence of 55 burghs by 1296.B. Webster, Medieval Scotland: the Making of an Identity (St. Martin's Press, 1997), , pp. 122–23. In addition to the major royal burghs, the late Middle Ages saw the proliferation of baronial and ecclesiastical burghs, with 51 created between 1450 and 1516. Most of these were much smaller than their royal counterparts. Excluded from foreign trade, they acted mainly as local markets and centres of craftsmanship.R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd ed., 2002), , p. 78. Burghs were centres of basic crafts, including the manufacture of shoes, clothes, dishes, pots, joinery, bread and ale, which would normally be sold to "indwellers" and "outdwellers" on market days. In general, burghs carried out far more local trading with their hinterlands, on which they relied for food and raw materials, than trading nationally or abroad.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 41–55.
Early Modern Scotland