The following list includes all effective burghs in Scotland from the coming into force of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 55), in 1893.[1] "Ineffective" burghs, which had not used legislation to adopt a "police system", take on local government duties and reform their town councils, were abolished on this date.
Burgh (/ˈbʌrə/BURR-ə) is the Scots term for a town or a municipality. It corresponds to the Scandinavian Borg and the English Borough.
Burghs are listed below under the name of the county to which they belonged. The county boundaries used are those effective for local government purposes from circa 1890 until 1975. During this period four burghs were also counties, or counties of cities in Scotland.
Counties of cities
These four burghs were counties of cities, being independent from the surrounding counties for all judicial and local government purposes.
Note a:^ Royal Burgh of Aberdeen absorbed Aberdeenshire burghs of Old Aberdeen burgh (burgh of barony 1489, police burgh 1860), Woodside (police burgh 1860) in 1891.
Note b:^ Royal Burgh of Glasgow absorbed the following Renfrewshire burghs in the years shown:
^"The County of a City of Aberdeen". Aberdeen Weekly Journal. 22 November 1899. p. 3. Retrieved 1 January 2023. The Secretary for Scotland having fixed the 15th November as the prescribed date for the creation of Aberdeen as the county of a city...
^Dundee Corporation Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c.lxxiv) "An Act to provide for the constitution of the City and Royal Burgh of Dundee as a County of a City and to confer various powers on the Lord Provost Magistrates and Town Council for affording greater facilities for transacting the public business of the said City and Burgh and for other purposes"
^Lewis, Samuel, ed. (1846). "Edinburgh". A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland. British History Online. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
^County of the City of Glasgow Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. clxxxviii)
^City of Glasgow Act 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. cxxx), section 4.
^"Records of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland with Extracts from Other Records Relating to the Affairs of the Burghs of Scotland. 1295-1597," p. 10, William Paterson, Edinburgh (1866)
^In 1936 Lord Lyon allowed Kelso to matriculate arms based on the seal of the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh or "Old Roxburgh" which had ceased to exist on the destruction of Roxburgh Castle in 1460. Kelso included part of the former royal burgh.Urquhart, R M (1973). Scottish Burgh and County Heraldry. London: Heraldry Today. pp. 238–239. ISBN 0-900455-24-1.