Everything about Inverness-shire totally explained
Inverness-shire also known as the county of Inverness, or
Siorrachd Inbhir Nis in
Gaelic, was a general purpose
county of
Scotland, with the
burgh of Inverness as the
county town, until 1975, when, under the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the county area was divided for
local government purposes between the two-tier
Highland region (
Inverness,
Badenoch and Strathspey,
Lochaber, and
Skye and Lochalsh districts) and the unitary
Western Isles. The county survived for
registration purposes and, at the same time, the
Inverness lieutenancy was defined as having the boundaries of the Highland districts of Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey, and Lochaber.
Inverness-shire acquired a
county council in 1890, under the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, and, under the same legislation, boundaries were altered to make the county a single contiguous area (except, of course, for island areas of the county).
Although the new boundaries were supposed to be valid for all purposes (unlike earlier boundaries, which were really default boundaries and not necessarily those used for any particular purpose), the burgh of Inverness, the
burgh of Fort William, and the
burgh of Kingussie, which had their own town councils, retained autonomous status and were generally beyond the writ of the new county council. The town of Inverness had been established as a
royal burgh since the mid 12th century, Fort William, originally with the name
Gordonsburgh, had been established as a
burgh of barony since 1618, and Kingussie had been established as a burgh of barony since 1464. Also, use of the new boundaries for parliamentary elections was specifically excluded.
The
Boundary Commissioners for Scotland, a body created by the 1889 act, transferred part of the parish of Cawder and part of the parish of Croy and Dalcross from the county of Inverness to the
county of Nairn, part of the parish of Petty and two parts of the parish of Daviot and Dunlichty from the parish county of Nairn to the county of Inverness, part of the parish of Kilmallie and part of the parish of Small Isles from the
county of Argyll to the county of Inverness, and part of the parish of Kilmorack from the county of Inverness to the
county of Ross and Cromarty. Thus the county of Inverness covered a large mainland area and various island areas off the west
coast. The mainland area had coastline in both the east and the west and included the towns of Kingussie, Fort William, and
Mallaig. The island areas included
North Uist,
South Uist, and
Harris in the
Outer Hebrides, and
Skye, and the
Small Isles in the
Inner Hebrides. The county had neighbouring counties as follow: Ross and Cromarty to the north, Nairn,
Moray,
Banff, and
Aberdeen to the east, and
Perth, and Argyll to the south.
In 1972, the
Isle of Rockall Act was passed, formally incorporating the tiny island of
Rockall into Scotland as part of the
Isle of Harris, Inverness-shire. Harris is now within
Na h-Eileanan Siar, formerly known as the Western Isles local government area.
Parliamentary constituencies
» Main articles: Scottish Westminster constituencies and Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions
There was an
Inverness-shire constituency of the
Parliament of Great Britain (
Westminster) from 1708 to 1801 and of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom (also at Westminster) from 1801 to 1918. The constituency represented, nominally, the county of Inverness minus the
parliamentary burgh of Inverness, which was represented as a component of the
Inverness District of Burghs constituency.
In 1918 the county constituency was divided between two new constituencies, the
Inverness constituency and the
Western Isles constituency. The Inverness constituency included the burgh of Inverness, other components of the
district of burghs being divided between the
Moray and Nairn constituency and the
Ross and Cromarty constituency.
In 1983, eight years after the local government county of Inverness had been divided between the
Highland region and the
Western Isles council area, three new constituencies were created to cover the Highland region. One of these,
Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber, had
Inverness in its name.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Inverness-shire'.
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