Current and Historic Counties of the UK
Compare the ceremonial, lieutenancy and preserved counties used today across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with the traditional historic counties they succeeded — plus the short-lived administrative counties and regions that existed in between. Toggle between boundary sets on the map, adjust the transparency, and click any county to read more.
At a glance
- Current ceremonial counties
- 97
- Traditional historic counties
- 85
- Scottish counties of cities
- 4
- Later administrative counties
- 11
The 85 traditional historic counties follow the Association of British Counties' Historic Counties Standard for Great Britain. Northern Ireland's six historic counties are outside the scope of this map: they sit outside the OS Boundary-Line dataset (Great Britain only), and county identity in Northern Ireland is a more contested subject than in Great Britain, so we have deliberately not sourced a substitute. See “Which type of county does this map show?” below for what each category means.
Which type of county does this map show?
The same place can legitimately sit inside several different, non-competing county systems at once — that overlap is the whole reason this map exists. Here is what each label on it actually means.
- Historic (traditional) counties
- The ancient counties of England, Wales and Scotland, most tracing their boundaries back to the medieval or Anglo-Saxon period and fixed in the form mapped here by the late 1880s. They were superseded for local government purposes in 1889 (Scotland), 1965 (Greater London) and 1974–75 (the rest of Great Britain), but never formally abolished, and they remain the reference point for county cricket clubs, historical and genealogical research, and a strong sense of local identity in many areas.
- Ceremonial counties (England)
- The areas used today to appoint a Lord-Lieutenant and High Sheriff, defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 and subsequent order. Most follow current administrative county or unitary authority boundaries rather than the historic ones, which is why, for example, ceremonial Bristol is a small city while historic Gloucestershire and Somerset both extend into it.
- Lieutenancy areas (Scotland and Northern Ireland)
- Scotland and Northern Ireland do not use the term “ceremonial county”, but they have direct equivalents: the lieutenancy areas of Scotland, largely based on the pre-1975 local government counties and cities, and Northern Ireland's own lieutenancy arrangement, which still uses its six historic counties plus the county boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry.
- Preserved counties (Wales)
- Wales uses “preserved counties” for the same ceremonial purpose. These were fixed in 1996 and are mostly the eight former county-council areas created in 1974 (several of which — Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd and South Glamorgan — appear on this map's historic layer as the administrative counties that briefly replaced the traditional ones).
- Council and unitary authority boundaries
- Different again: these are the areas actually run by a local council today, and they change far more often than ceremonial or historic boundaries as authorities merge, split or convert to unitary status. A single ceremonial or historic county can contain several separate council areas, and council boundaries are not shown on this map at all.
Map of current and historic counties
Use the switch to choose which boundary set is shown, and the slider to fade the overlay so the underlying map is visible beneath it. Click any county to zoom in, highlight its outline, and load its details.
Find a county
These historic counties were superseded by local government reorganisation but remain culturally and geographically significant.
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No counties match your search.
Sources & methodology
Both boundary layers are drawn from Ordnance Survey's Boundary-Line dataset, which includes both current administrative/ceremonial boundaries and a separate historic counties layer. Boundary-Line is supplied as OS OpenData under the Open Government Licence.
Current boundaries show the ceremonial counties, Scottish lieutenancy areas, Welsh preserved counties and Northern Ireland's lieutenancy areas used today — the areas that define a Lord-Lieutenant's jurisdiction, which often differ from local council or unitary authority boundaries.
Historic boundaries show the traditional counties broadly as they stood before the reorganisations of 1889–1975, classified here into three groups: 85 traditional historic counties (following the Association of British Counties' Historic Counties Standard for England, Wales and Scotland), 4 former Scottish counties of cities, and 11 later administrative counties and regions (1974–1996) that replaced the traditional counties for a period before being superseded in turn. Northern Ireland's six historic counties are part of the wider Historic Counties Standard but are not included in our historic boundary layer: OS Boundary-Line only covers Great Britain, and county identity in Northern Ireland carries a political sensitivity that county identity in Great Britain generally does not, so we have not sourced a substitute dataset rather than add one without proper care.
© Crown copyright and database rights 2026.
Historic county guides: England, Scotland & Wales
Original short profiles of all 100 entries on the map’s historic layer, each with its own full page and labelled below by category (see “Which type of county does this map show?” above for what the labels mean): 85 traditional historic counties, 4 former Scottish counties of cities, and 11 later administrative counties and regions. The 52 traditional counties of England and Wales are written from eighteenth-century antiquarian sources, principally A Concise View of England (1775) and A Chorographical Description of the Fifty-Two Counties of England and Wales (1772), covering each county’s traditional boundaries, economy and antiquities as recorded before local government reform redrew the map. No equivalent county-by-county antiquarian source exists for Scotland in this collection, so its 33 traditional counties, 4 counties of cities and later regional and unitary successors, along with Wales’s five short-lived 1974–1996 administrative counties, are instead original profiles researched from the historical record.
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Aberdeen — Scottish county of a city
County town: Aberdeen
Aberdeen, on Scotland's north-east coast where the rivers Dee and Don reach the sea, consisted at the close of the eighteenth century of two distinct towns that would only later fully merge into a single city.
Read the full Aberdeen guide »Aberdeenshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Aberdeen · Principal towns: Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Inverurie
Aberdeenshire is a large historic county of north-east Scotland, traditionally divided into the districts of Mar in the mountainous south-west, Buchan in the flatter north-east, and the district properly called Aberdeen around the twin rive…
Read the full Aberdeenshire guide »Anglesey — Traditional historic county
County town: Beaumaris · Principal towns: Llangefni, Holyhead, Menai Bridge
Anglesey, known to the Welsh as Ynys Môn and to the Romans as Mona, is an island county off the north-west coast of Wales, separated from Caernarvonshire by the narrow tidal strait of the Menai and washed on every other side by the Irish S…
Read the full Anglesey guide »Angus — Traditional historic county
County town: Forfar · Principal towns: Arbroath, Montrose, Brechin
Angus, historically known as Forfarshire after its former county town, occupies Scotland's eastern coast between the Firth of Tay and the Grampian foothills, its landscape descending from bleak upland moor in the north-west to some of the m…
Read the full Angus guide »Argyll and Bute — Later administrative county
County town: Lochgilphead · Principal towns: Oban, Dunoon, Helensburgh
Argyll and Bute unites the historic county of Argyllshire, its mainland cut through by sea lochs and its territory scattered across dozens of Hebridean islands, with the smaller neighbouring county of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, a combinati…
Read the full Argyll and Bute guide »Argyllshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Inveraray · Principal towns: Oban, Campbeltown, Dunoon
Argyllshire, in Gaelic the coastland of the Gael, is a vast and deeply indented historic county of the Scottish West Highlands, its mainland cut through by sea lochs including Loch Fyne, Loch Awe and Loch Linnhe, and its territory extending…
Read the full Argyllshire guide »Ayrshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Ayr · Principal towns: Kilmarnock, Troon, Irvine
Ayrshire curves in a broad crescent along the Firth of Clyde in south-west Scotland, traditionally divided into the three districts of Carrick in the mountainous south, Kyle in the fertile centre, and Cunninghame in the north toward Renfrew…
Read the full Ayrshire guide »Ayrshire and Arran — Later administrative county
Ayrshire and Arran brings together the historic county of Ayrshire, curving along the Firth of Clyde in three traditional districts, Carrick, Kyle and Cunninghame, with the mountainous island of Arran that lies just offshore, historically r…
Read the full Ayrshire and Arran guide »B
Banffshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Banff · Principal towns: Macduff, Buckie, Keith
Banffshire is a historic county of north-east Scotland, its outline running roughly triangular between the Moray Firth coast and a wild southern mountain district where Cairngorm itself, source of the smoky quartz gemstones that bear its na…
Read the full Banffshire guide »Bedfordshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Bedford · Principal towns: Luton, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire is a small, oval-shaped historic county in the East of England, bounded by Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south.
Read the full Bedfordshire guide »Berkshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Reading · Principal towns: Windsor, Newbury, Maidenhead
Berkshire is a historic county of southern England, bounded by Hampshire to the south, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to the west, the River Thames to the north — dividing it from Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire — and Surrey to the east.
Read the full Berkshire guide »Berwickshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Duns · Principal towns: Eyemouth, Coldstream, Earlston
Berwickshire occupies the south-east corner of Scotland, its coast washed by the German Ocean, the Tweed and the English border curving along its south-east flank, Roxburghshire closing it on the south, and the Lammermuir Hills marking its…
Read the full Berwickshire guide »Brecknockshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Brecon · Principal towns: Builth Wells, Hay-on-Wye, Talgarth
Brecknockshire, or Breconshire, is a historic inland county of South Wales, lying within the diocese of St David's and bounded by Radnorshire to the north, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire to the west, Herefordshire and Monmouthshire to th…
Read the full Brecknockshire guide »Buckinghamshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Aylesbury · Principal towns: High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Amersham
Buckinghamshire is a historic county lying between the Thames and the Midlands, bounded by the river itself and Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, and Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex to…
Read the full Buckinghamshire guide »Buteshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Rothesay · Principal towns: Brodick, Millport, Port Bannatyne
Buteshire is a historic island county in the Firth of Clyde, comprising the islands of Bute and Arran together with the smaller Cumbraes, without any mainland territory of its own.
Read the full Buteshire guide »C
Caithness — Traditional historic county
County town: Wick · Principal towns: Thurso, Castletown
Caithness occupies the extreme north-eastern corner of the Scottish mainland, its comparatively flat, treeless plain a marked contrast to the mountainous counties immediately to its south.
Read the full Caithness guide »Cambridgeshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Cambridge · Principal towns: Peterborough, Ely, Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire is a historic county of eastern England, bounded by Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire to the west, Hertfordshire and Essex to the south, Lincolnshire to the north, and Norfolk and Suffolk to the east.
Read the full Cambridgeshire guide »Cardiganshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Cardigan · Principal towns: Aberystwyth, Lampeter, New Quay
Cardiganshire, in Welsh Ceredigion, is a historic county of west Wales, bounded by a small part of Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire to the north, Radnorshire and Brecknockshire to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south,…
Read the full Cardiganshire guide »Carmarthenshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Carmarthen · Principal towns: Llanelli, Ammanford, Kidwelly
Carmarthenshire, the largest of the historic Welsh counties, lies in South Wales, bounded by Cardiganshire to the north, the Bristol Channel to the south, Pembrokeshire to the west, and Glamorgan and Brecknockshire to the east.
Read the full Carmarthenshire guide »Carnarvonshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Caernarfon · Principal towns: Bangor, Pwllheli, Porthmadog
Carnarvonshire, in Welsh Sir Gaernarfon, is a historic county of North Wales, wedge-shaped in outline, bounded on its north, south and west sides by the Irish Sea, separated from the Isle of Anglesey by the narrow strait of the Menai, and b…
Read the full Carnarvonshire guide »Cheshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Chester · Principal towns: Warrington, Crewe, Macclesfield
Cheshire is a historic county of north-west England, separated from Lancashire by the River Mersey and bordering Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the east and south, with Denbighshire and Flintshire across the River Dee to the wes…
Read the full Cheshire guide »Clackmannanshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Clackmannan · Principal towns: Alloa, Tillicoultry, Dollar
Clackmannanshire, the smallest historic county in Scotland at barely eight miles in length, sits on the north bank of the Firth of Forth between Stirlingshire and Perthshire, its ground rising north toward the Ochil Hills that separate it f…
Read the full Clackmannanshire guide »Clwyd — Later administrative county
County town: Mold · Principal towns: Wrexham, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay
Clwyd was a historic administrative county of north-east Wales, created under the Local Government Act 1972 and coming into effect in 1974, formed by merging the ancient counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire together with a small detached…
Read the full Clwyd guide »Cornwall — Traditional historic county
County town: Bodmin · Principal towns: Truro, Falmouth, St Austell
Cornwall forms the far south-western extremity of England, bounded on the north, south and east by the sea and separated from Devon by the River Tamar.
Read the full Cornwall guide »Cumberland — Traditional historic county
County town: Carlisle · Principal towns: Whitehaven, Workington, Penrith
Cumberland was a historic county of north-west England, bounded by Scotland and Northumberland to the north, the Irish Sea to the west, Lancashire to the south, and Westmorland, Durham and Northumberland to the east.
Read the full Cumberland guide »D
Denbighshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Denbigh · Principal towns: Wrexham, Llangollen, Rhyl
Denbighshire is a historic county of North Wales, bounded by Flintshire and Shropshire to the east, Merionethshire to the south, Carnarvonshire to the west, and the Irish Sea and part of Flintshire to the north.
Read the full Denbighshire guide »Derbyshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Derby · Principal towns: Chesterfield, Buxton, Glossop
Derbyshire is a historic county of the East Midlands, bounded by Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire and Warwickshire to the south, and Staffordshire to the west.
Read the full Derbyshire guide »Devon — Traditional historic county
County town: Exeter · Principal towns: Plymouth, Torquay, Barnstaple
Devon, or Devonshire, is a large historic county of south-west England, bounded by the English Channel to the south, the Bristol Channel to the north, Cornwall to the west and Somerset and Dorset to the east.
Read the full Devon guide »Dorset — Traditional historic county
County town: Dorchester · Principal towns: Poole, Weymouth, Bridport
Dorsetshire, now usually Dorset, is a historic county on the English Channel coast, bounded by Wiltshire and Somerset to the north, Devon and Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the east and the sea to the south.
Read the full Dorset guide »Dumfriesshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Dumfries · Principal towns: Annan, Lockerbie, Moffat
Dumfriesshire is a historic county of south-west Scotland on the Solway Firth, its three river valleys, Eskdale, Annandale and Nithsdale, giving their names to the county's traditional subdivisions and draining the southern flank of the sam…
Read the full Dumfriesshire guide »Dunbartonshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Dumbarton · Principal towns: Clydebank, Helensburgh, Alexandria
Dunbartonshire stretches from the industrial banks of the Clyde up to the southern shore of Loch Lomond, its county town of Dumbarton taking its name, and giving the shire its own, from the ancient fortress rock that rises abruptly from the…
Read the full Dunbartonshire guide »Dundee — Scottish county of a city
County town: Dundee
Dundee, standing on the north bank of the Firth of Tay near its mouth, was already, by the close of the eighteenth century, the effective capital of Angus, though historically administered as part of that county rather than as a separate ju…
Read the full Dundee guide »Durham — Traditional historic county
County town: Durham · Principal towns: Sunderland, Gateshead, Darlington
Durham, properly the County Palatine of Durham, is a historic county of north-east England, bounded by the Tyne to the north, which parts it from Northumberland, the North Sea to the east, the Tees to the south, dividing it from Yorkshire,…
Read the full Durham guide »Dyfed — Later administrative county
County town: Carmarthen · Principal towns: Aberystwyth, Haverfordwest, Llanelli
Dyfed was a historic administrative county of south-west Wales, created in 1974 by merging the ancient counties of Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire into a single large authority, and named after Dyfed, one of the most powerf…
Read the full Dyfed guide »E
East Lothian — Traditional historic county
County town: Haddington · Principal towns: North Berwick, Dunbar, Tranent
East Lothian, historically the county of Haddington, occupies the fertile coastal strip east of Edinburgh between the Lammermuir Hills and the Firth of Forth.
Read the full East Lothian guide »Edinburgh — Scottish county of a city
County town: Edinburgh
Edinburgh, capital of Scotland since the medieval period, is built across three ridges of high ground, its Old Town crowning the central ridge in a jumble of tall tenements descending from the fortress rock of Edinburgh Castle at one end to…
Read the full Edinburgh guide »Essex — Traditional historic county
County town: Chelmsford · Principal towns: Colchester, Southend-on-Sea, Harlow
Essex is a historic county of eastern England, bounded by the River Stour to the north, which separates it from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire and Middlesex to the west, and the River Thames to the sout…
Read the full Essex guide »F
Fife — Traditional historic county
County town: Cupar · Principal towns: Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, St Andrews
Fife occupies the broad peninsula between the Firths of Forth and Tay in eastern Scotland, its long-standing title of the Kingdom of Fife reflecting an ancient sense of separate identity among Scottish counties.
Read the full Fife guide »Flintshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Mold · Principal towns: Flint, Holywell, Buckley
Flintshire is the smallest of the historic Welsh counties, lying in the north-east of the country and bounded by the estuary of the River Dee to the north-east and east, the Irish Sea to the north-west, and Denbighshire to the south and wes…
Read the full Flintshire guide »G
Glamorgan — Traditional historic county
County town: Cardiff · Principal towns: Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath
Glamorgan, or Glamorganshire, is a historic county of South Wales, its name derived, according to antiquarian tradition, from Gwlad Morgan, the land of Morgan, after a prince said to have ruled the district many centuries before the Christi…
Read the full Glamorgan guide »Glasgow — Scottish county of a city
County town: Glasgow
Glasgow, seated on the banks of the Clyde within the historic county of Lanarkshire, was already, by the close of the eighteenth century, a city an admiring topographical survey judged capable of rivalling Manchester in the quality and pric…
Read the full Glasgow guide »Gloucestershire — Traditional historic county
County town: Gloucester · Principal towns: Cheltenham, Bristol, Stroud
Gloucestershire is a historic county of the western Midlands, bounded by Herefordshire and Monmouthshire to the west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire to the east, and Wiltshire and Somerset to the south.
Read the full Gloucestershire guide »Gwent — Later administrative county
County town: Cwmbran · Principal towns: Newport, Ebbw Vale, Abergavenny
Gwent was a historic administrative county of south-east Wales, created in 1974 as the direct successor to the ancient county of Monmouthshire, whose curious centuries-long ambiguity between English and Welsh administration was finally and…
Read the full Gwent guide »Gwynedd — Later administrative county
County town: Caernarfon · Principal towns: Bangor, Dolgellau, Pwllheli
Gwynedd was a historic administrative county of north-west Wales, created in 1974 by combining the ancient counties of Caernarfonshire, Merionethshire and Anglesey together with a small part of Denbighshire, and named after the medieval Kin…
Read the full Gwynedd guide »H
Hampshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Winchester · Principal towns: Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke
Hampshire, or Hants, properly the county of Southampton, is a historic county on the south coast of England, bounded by Surrey and Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, Wiltshire and Dorset to the west, and Berkshire to the…
Read the full Hampshire guide »Herefordshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Hereford · Principal towns: Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury
Herefordshire is a historic county on the Welsh border, bounded by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire to the east, Monmouthshire to the south, and Radnorshire in Wales to the west.
Read the full Herefordshire guide »Hertfordshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Hertford · Principal towns: Watford, St Albans, Stevenage
Hertfordshire is a historic county immediately north of London, bounded by Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to the west, and Middlesex to the south.
Read the full Hertfordshire guide »Huntingdonshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Huntingdon · Principal towns: St Neots, St Ives, Ramsey
Huntingdonshire is a small historic county of eastern England, taking its name, according to antiquarian tradition, from an Anglo-Saxon word describing it as a county given over to hunting.
Read the full Huntingdonshire guide »I
Inverness — Later administrative county
County town: Inverness
Inverness, long known as the Capital of the Highlands and administratively distinct from the vast surrounding county of Inverness-shire, stands where the River Ness meets the Moray Firth, its position controlling the eastern end of the Grea…
Read the full Inverness guide »Inverness-shire — Traditional historic county
County town: Inverness · Principal towns: Fort William, Kingussie, Portree
Inverness-shire, by far the largest historic county in Scotland, stretched from the Moray Firth across the Great Glen and the Grampian and Monadhliath mountains to the Atlantic coast, its territory including Ben Nevis, the highest mountain…
Read the full Inverness-shire guide »K
Kent — Traditional historic county
County town: Maidstone · Principal towns: Canterbury, Dover, Chatham
Kent is a historic county in the far south-east of England, bounded by Sussex and Surrey to the west, the Thames to the north, the Strait of Dover to the east, and the English Channel to the south.
Read the full Kent guide »Kincardineshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Stonehaven · Principal towns: Laurencekirk, Banchory, Inverbervie
Kincardineshire, also historically called the Mearns, is a compact historic county of north-east Scotland between Aberdeenshire and Angus, its landscape descending from Grampian foothills in the west to a rugged coastline whose only signifi…
Read the full Kincardineshire guide »Kinross-shire — Traditional historic county
County town: Kinross · Principal towns: Milnathort
Kinross-shire, one of the smallest historic counties in Scotland, lies entirely inland, surrounded by Perthshire on almost every side and touching Fife only briefly at its eastern edge.
Read the full Kinross-shire guide »Kirkcudbrightshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Kirkcudbright · Principal towns: Castle Douglas, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dalbeattie
Kirkcudbrightshire, still commonly called the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, is a historic county of south-west Scotland within the ancient district of Galloway, bounded by the Solway Firth to the south, Dumfriesshire to the east, Ayrshire to…
Read the full Kirkcudbrightshire guide »L
Lanarkshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Lanark · Principal towns: Glasgow, Hamilton, Motherwell
Lanarkshire follows the River Clyde through central Scotland from its wild, mountainous source near the Dumfriesshire border down to the city of Glasgow, and was traditionally divided into three wards: the upper ward around the county town…
Read the full Lanarkshire guide »Lancashire — Traditional historic county
County town: Lancaster · Principal towns: Manchester, Liverpool, Preston
Lancashire is a historic county of north-west England, bounded by Westmorland and Cumberland to the north, Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west.
Read the full Lancashire guide »Leicestershire — Traditional historic county
County town: Leicester · Principal towns: Loughborough, Hinckley, Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire is a historic county of the East Midlands, taking its name from Leicester, its county town, sited on the River Soar, anciently called the Leire.
Read the full Leicestershire guide »Lincolnshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Lincoln · Principal towns: Grantham, Boston, Stamford
Lincolnshire is a large historic county of eastern England, taking its name from the city of Lincoln, known to the ancient Britons as Lindcoit and to the Anglo-Saxons as Lincolnscire.
Read the full Lincolnshire guide »M
Merionethshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Dolgellau · Principal towns: Bala, Barmouth, Blaenau Ffestiniog
Merionethshire, in Welsh Sir Feirionnydd, is a historic county of North Wales, bounded by Carnarvonshire and Denbighshire to the north, Montgomeryshire to the east, Cardigan Bay and the Irish Sea to the west, and the River Dyfi, dividing it…
Read the full Merionethshire guide »Middlesex — Traditional historic county
County town: Brentford · Principal towns: Ealing, Enfield, Harrow
Middlesex is the smallest of England's historic counties by area, bounded by Hertfordshire to the north, the Thames to the south, dividing it from Surrey, the River Colne to the west, marking the border with Buckinghamshire, and the River L…
Read the full Middlesex guide »Midlothian — Traditional historic county
County town: Edinburgh · Principal towns: Dalkeith, Penicuik, Bonnyrigg
Midlothian, historically the county of Edinburgh, surrounds Scotland's capital on every side, its rural parishes stretching from the Pentland Hills in the west to the Firth of Forth and the sweep of coast running east toward Musselburgh.
Read the full Midlothian guide »Monmouthshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Monmouth · Principal towns: Newport, Abergavenny, Chepstow
Monmouthshire occupies a distinctive and long-debated position among the historic counties: formerly reckoned part of Wales, as described by the antiquarian William Camden and other early writers, it had by the eighteenth century come to be…
Read the full Monmouthshire guide »Montgomeryshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Montgomery · Principal towns: Welshpool, Newtown, Machynlleth
Montgomeryshire is a historic inland county of mid Wales, bounded by Merionethshire and Denbighshire to the north, Shropshire to the north-east and east, Radnorshire and Cardiganshire to the south, and Cardiganshire and part of Merionethshi…
Read the full Montgomeryshire guide »Moray — Traditional historic county
County town: Elgin · Principal towns: Forres, Lossiemouth, Buckie
Moray, historically also called Elginshire, is a historic county on the south shore of the Moray Firth, sheltered by high mountains along its southern and western borders with Inverness-shire in a position an eighteenth-century survey credi…
Read the full Moray guide »N
Nairn — Traditional historic county
County town: Nairn · Principal towns: Auldearn
Nairn, or Nairnshire, is one of the smallest historic counties on the Scottish mainland, a narrow shire on the Moray Firth coast wedged between Moray and Inverness-shire, its river Findhorn shared with, and largely credited to, its neighbou…
Read the full Nairn guide »Norfolk — Traditional historic county
County town: Norwich · Principal towns: Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn, Thetford
Norfolk is a large historic county of eastern England, bounded by the North Sea to the east and north, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south.
Read the full Norfolk guide »Northamptonshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Northampton · Principal towns: Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough
Northamptonshire is a historic county of the East Midlands, bounded by Buckinghamshire to the south and Warwickshire and Oxfordshire to the west, then narrowing into a long north-eastern tract, shaped by antiquarian writers into the memorab…
Read the full Northamptonshire guide »Northumberland — Traditional historic county
County town: Alnwick · Principal towns: Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Morpeth
Northumberland occupies the extreme north-east of England, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the bishopric of Durham and Cumberland to the south, and Scotland to the north and west, separated from it by the River Tweed.
Read the full Northumberland guide »Nottinghamshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Nottingham · Principal towns: Mansfield, Newark-on-Trent, Worksop
Nottinghamshire is a historic county of the East Midlands, taking its name from Nottingham, the county town, called by the Anglo-Saxons Snottengaham, or 'house of caves', after the extensive rock-cut dwellings said to have sheltered the anc…
Read the full Nottinghamshire guide »O
Orkney — Traditional historic county
County town: Kirkwall · Principal towns: Stromness
Orkney is a historic county comprising an archipelago of islands off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland, first settled by Norsemen and remaining subject to the Norwegian crown for centuries before finally passing to Scotland as part…
Read the full Orkney guide »Oxfordshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Oxford · Principal towns: Banbury, Witney, Henley-on-Thames
Oxfordshire is a historic county of the southern Midlands, bounded by Warwickshire and Northamptonshire to the north, where it narrows into a wedge-shaped tract, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Gloucestershire to th…
Read the full Oxfordshire guide »P
Peebleshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Peebles · Principal towns: Innerleithen, Broughton
Peeblesshire, historically also called Tweeddale, is a historic inland county of the Scottish Borders occupying the upper valley of the Tweed as it descends from its source in the county's southern hills, bounded by Edinburghshire, Selkirks…
Read the full Peebleshire guide »Pembrokeshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Haverfordwest · Principal towns: Milford Haven, Tenby, Fishguard
Pembrokeshire occupies the south-western extremity of Wales, taking its name from Pembroke, its county town, and bounded by Carmarthenshire to the east, Cardiganshire to the north-east, and the Irish Sea on every other side.
Read the full Pembrokeshire guide »Perth and Kinross — Later administrative county
County town: Perth · Principal towns: Kinross, Blairgowrie, Crieff
Perth and Kinross unites the historic county of Perthshire, one of the largest in Scotland, with the tiny neighbouring shire of Kinross, a combination first made administratively in 1975 and continued as a single unitary council area since…
Read the full Perth and Kinross guide »Perthshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Perth · Principal towns: Blairgowrie, Crieff, Pitlochry
Perthshire is a vast historic county of central Scotland, its territory rising from the fertile carse land along the Tay to the high Grampian summits of Atholl, Rannoch and Breadalbane in the north, an eighteenth-century survey dividing the…
Read the full Perthshire guide »R
Radnorshire — Traditional historic county
County town: New Radnor · Principal towns: Presteigne, Knighton, Rhayader
Radnorshire is a historic inland county of mid Wales, bounded by Montgomeryshire to the north, Shropshire and Herefordshire to the east, Brecknockshire to the south and south-west, and Cardiganshire to the west.
Read the full Radnorshire guide »Renfrewshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Renfrew · Principal towns: Paisley, Greenock, Port Glasgow
Renfrewshire lies along the southern bank of the Clyde west of Glasgow, its older name of Strathgryfe derived from the River Gryfe, one of several streams, alongside the Black Cart and White Cart, that drain its hills into the wider river.
Read the full Renfrewshire guide »Ross and Cromarty — Traditional historic county
County town: Dingwall · Principal towns: Invergordon, Tain, Ullapool
Ross and Cromarty unites two historic counties of the northern Highlands, the large mainland shire of Ross, stretching from the North Sea to the Atlantic between Sutherland and Inverness-shire, and the small, remarkably fragmented county of…
Read the full Ross and Cromarty guide »Roxburghshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Jedburgh · Principal towns: Hawick, Kelso, Melrose
Roxburghshire is a historic county of the central Scottish Borders, its rivers, the Teviot and the Jed, draining into the Tweed as it runs along much of the county's northern edge before turning south toward Berwickshire and England.
Read the full Roxburghshire guide »Rutland — Traditional historic county
County town: Oakham · Principal towns: Uppingham
Rutland, formerly Rutlandshire, is the smallest historic county in England, bounded by Lincolnshire to the north and north-east, Northamptonshire to the south and south-east, and Leicestershire to the south-west and north-west.
Read the full Rutland guide »S
Selkirkshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Selkirk · Principal towns: Galashiels
Selkirkshire is one of the smallest historic counties of Scotland, an upland shire in the central Borders bounded by Edinburghshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Dumfriesshire, its rivers the Ettrick and Yarrow rising among lonely hills…
Read the full Selkirkshire guide »Shetland — Traditional historic county
County town: Lerwick · Principal towns: Scalloway
Shetland, or Zetland as it was still commonly known in the eighteenth century, forms Scotland's northernmost historic county, an archipelago lying, like neighbouring Orkney, under Norwegian and Danish rule for centuries before passing to th…
Read the full Shetland guide »Shropshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Shrewsbury · Principal towns: Telford, Oswestry, Ludlow
Shropshire is a historic county on the Welsh border, its name derived from Scrobbesbyrig, the Saxon name for Shrewsbury meaning a town built on a wooded hill.
Read the full Shropshire guide »Somerset — Traditional historic county
County town: Taunton · Principal towns: Bath, Bristol, Yeovil
Somersetshire, now usually Somerset, is a historic county of south-west England, bounded by Gloucestershire and the Bristol Channel to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Devon to the west, and Devon and Dorset to the south.
Read the full Somerset guide »South Glamorgan — Later administrative county
County town: Cardiff · Principal towns: Barry, Penarth
South Glamorgan was a historic administrative county of south Wales, created in 1974 by dividing the large ancient county of Glamorgan into two new administrative units, South Glamorgan taking in Cardiff and the fertile Vale of Glamorgan to…
Read the full South Glamorgan guide »Staffordshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Stafford · Principal towns: Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Walsall
Staffordshire is a historic county of the West Midlands, named from Stafford, its county town, and bounded by Derbyshire to the east, Warwickshire to the south, Shropshire to the south and west, and Cheshire and Derbyshire to the north.
Read the full Staffordshire guide »Stirling and Falkirk — Later administrative county
Stirling and Falkirk denotes the combined territory of historic Stirlingshire together with the Falkirk district at its eastern end, a stretch of central Scotland an eighteenth-century topographical account singled out for the view from Sti…
Read the full Stirling and Falkirk guide »Stirlingshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Stirling · Principal towns: Falkirk, Grangemouth, Denny
Stirlingshire occupies the strategic waist of central Scotland where the Highlands meet the Lowlands, its county town of Stirling built around a castle guarding the ancient pass between the two.
Read the full Stirlingshire guide »Suffolk — Traditional historic county
County town: Ipswich · Principal towns: Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft, Sudbury
Suffolk is a historic county of eastern England, bounded by the rivers Waveney and Little Ouse to the north, which divide it from Norfolk, the North Sea to the east, the River Stour to the south, separating it from Essex, and Cambridgeshire…
Read the full Suffolk guide »Surrey — Traditional historic county
County town: Guildford · Principal towns: Croydon, Richmond, Woking
Surrey is a historic county immediately south of London, bounded by Kent to the east, Sussex to the south, Hampshire and Berkshire to the west, and the River Thames to the north, dividing it from Middlesex.
Read the full Surrey guide »Sussex — Traditional historic county
County town: Lewes · Principal towns: Brighton, Hastings, Worthing
Sussex is a historic county on the south coast of England, bounded by Surrey to the north, Kent to the north-east and east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west.
Read the full Sussex guide »Sutherland — Traditional historic county
County town: Dornoch · Principal towns: Golspie, Brora, Lairg
Sutherland occupies the far north-west of the Scottish mainland, its name derived, confusingly to modern ears, from the Old Norse for 'southern land', a label reflecting its position as seen from Norse Orkney and Caithness rather than from…
Read the full Sutherland guide »W
Warwickshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Warwick · Principal towns: Birmingham, Coventry, Rugby
Warwickshire is a historic county of the West Midlands, its name derived from the Saxon Waeringscire, meaning a station or fortified place of soldiers.
Read the full Warwickshire guide »West Lothian — Traditional historic county
County town: Linlithgow · Principal towns: Bathgate, Livingston, Broxburn
West Lothian, historically the county of Linlithgow, lies between Edinburgh and Stirling along the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, its landscape rising from rich coastal lowland to the moorland heights around Bathgate and Whitburn.
Read the full West Lothian guide »Western Isles — Later administrative county
County town: Stornoway · Principal towns: Tarbert, Balivanich, Castlebay
The Western Isles, or Outer Hebrides, form a long chain of islands off Scotland's north-west Atlantic coast, historically divided between Inverness-shire and Ross-shire until local government reform in 1975 finally united the whole chain un…
Read the full Western Isles guide »Westmorland — Traditional historic county
County town: Appleby-in-Westmorland · Principal towns: Kendal, Windermere
Westmorland was a historic county of north-west England, bounded by Cumberland to the north and north-west, the bishopric of Durham and Yorkshire to the north-east and east, Yorkshire again to the south-east, and Lancashire to the south and…
Read the full Westmorland guide »Wigtownshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Wigtown · Principal towns: Stranraer, Newton Stewart, Whithorn
Wigtownshire forms the far south-western tip of Scotland, within the district of Galloway, its hammerhead-shaped Rhinns peninsula reaching out between Loch Ryan and the bay of Luce toward the Irish Sea.
Read the full Wigtownshire guide »Wiltshire — Traditional historic county
County town: Wilton · Principal towns: Salisbury, Swindon, Chippenham
Wiltshire is a historic county of south-west England, bounded by Berkshire to the north-east and east, Hampshire to the south-east, Somerset to the south-west, and Gloucestershire to the north-west and north.
Read the full Wiltshire guide »Worcestershire — Traditional historic county
County town: Worcester · Principal towns: Kidderminster, Redditch, Malvern
Worcestershire is a historic county of the West Midlands, bounded by Staffordshire to the north, Warwickshire to the east and north-east, Shropshire and Herefordshire to the west, and Gloucestershire to the south.
Read the full Worcestershire guide »Y
Yorkshire — Traditional historic county
County town: York · Principal towns: Leeds, Sheffield, Hull
Yorkshire, in extent equal to some small sovereign states and larger than any two other English counties combined, is a historic county of northern England bounded by Westmorland and the bishopric of Durham to the north, the North Sea to th…
Read the full Yorkshire guide »