Civil parishes in Scotland

Last updated November 21, 2022

Civil parishes are small divisions used for statistical purposes and formerly for local government in Scotland.

Civil parishes gained legal functions in 1845 which parochial boards were established to administer the poor law. Their local government functions were abolished in 1930 with their powers transferred to county or burgh councils. Since 1975, they have been superseded as the smallest unit of local administration in Scotland by community councils.

History

Civil parishes in Scotland can be dated from 1845, when parochial boards were established to administer the poor law. While they originally corresponded to the parishes of the Church of Scotland, the number and boundaries of parishes soon diverged. Where a parish contained a burgh, a separate landward parish was formed for the portion outside the town.

Until 1891 many parishes lay in more than one county. In that year, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, the boundaries of most of the civil parishes and counties were realigned so that each parish was wholly within a single county. In 1894 the parochial boards were replaced by more democratically elected parish councils.

Parish councils were in turn abolished in 1930, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, with powers being transferred to county councils in landward areas of counties and burgh councils where they were within a burgh.

Their boundaries continued to be used to define some of the local authorities created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and they continue to be used for census purposes and they are used as part of the coding system for agricultural holdings under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) used to administer schemes within the Common Agricultural Policy.

According to the website of the General Register Office for Scotland, there are now 871 civil parishes.^[1]

Relationship with ecclesiastical parishes

Civil parish boundaries originally corresponded with the ecclesiastical parishes of the Church of Scotland. As parishes used for religious functions diverged from civil parishes, the former became known as quoad sacra parishes.

Community councils

Since 1975, Scotland has been divided into community council areas which are often similar to civil parishes in their boundaries.

These community council are not equivalent to English parish councils and Welsh community councils and do not have legal powers of their own but in some cases local authorities have a legal obligation to consult them.

Related Research Articles

Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south; it borders the counties of Inverness-shire and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus to the east, Fife, Kinross-shire, Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire to the south and Argyllshire to the west. It was a local government county from 1890 to 1930.

For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas", which are all governed by single-tier authorities designated as "councils". They have the option under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1997 of being known as a "comhairle" when opting for a Gaelic name; only Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has chosen this option, whereas the Highland Council has adopted its Gaelic form alongside its English equivalent informally.

Caithness is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

Moray; or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It was a local government county, with Elgin the county town, until 1975. The county was officially called Elginshire, sharing the name of the Elginshire parliamentary constituency, so named since 1708.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinross-shire</span> Historic county in Scotland

The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Perthshire to the north and Fife to the east, south and west.

Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.

In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of ecclesiastical parishes, which historically played a role in both secular and religious administration. Civil and religious parishes were formally differentiated in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894, which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry.

A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially as the "vestry".

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the Act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland. In this it followed the pattern introduced in England and Wales by the Local Government Act 1888.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renfrewshire (historic)</span> Historic county and lieutenancy area of western Scotland

Renfrewshire or the County of Renfrew is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It contains the local government council areas of Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, as well as parts of Glasgow and is occasionally named Greater Renfrewshire to distinguish the county from the modern council area.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created a Local Government Board for Scotland, and replaced existing parochial boards with parish councils.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 reorganised local government in Scotland from 1930, introducing joint county councils, large and small burghs and district councils. The Act also abolished the Scottish poor law system with institutions passing to the local authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Kilpatrick</span>

New Kilpatrick, is an ecclesiastical Parish and former Civil Parish in Dunbartonshire. It was formed in 1649 from the eastern half of the parish of Kilpatrick, the western half forming Old Kilpatrick. New Kilpatrick is also a disused name for the town of Bearsden.

Lasswade is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk, nine miles south of Edinburgh city centre, contiguous with Bonnyrigg and between Dalkeith to the east and Loanhead to the west. Melville Castle lies to the north east. The Gaelic form is Leas Bhaid, meaning the "clump at the fort."

A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act.

Local government areas covering the whole of Scotland were first defined by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. As currently defined, they are a result, for the most part, of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994.

Cockpen is a parish in Midlothian, Scotland, containing at its north-west corner the town of Bonnyrigg, which lies two miles (3.2 km) south-west of Dalkeith. It is bounded on the west and north by the parish of Lasswade, on the east, by Newbattle and on the south by Carrington. It extends about three miles (4.8 km) from north to south and its greatest breadth is about 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km).

Scoonie is a settlement and parish in Fife, Scotland, the parish contains the town of Leven. It is bordered on the north by the parishes of Kettle and Ceres, on the east by the parish of Largo, on the south by the parishes of Markinch and Wemyss, and on the west by the parishes of Markinch and Kennoway. It extends about 4+1⁄2 miles north to south. Its width varies between 5⁄8 and 2+3⁄4 mi . The parish is on the coast of the Firth of Forth, with a coastline of about 1+1⁄2 mi (2.4 km) The area of the parish is 4,107 acres.

References

↑ National Records of Scotland. "Geography – Background Information – Civil Parishes and Islands" (PDF). Retrieved 19 January 2018.

External links

Scottish Civil Parish Maps at ArcGIS
scotlandsplaces.gov.uk displays parish maps for individual counties, as in this example of Dumfriesshire parishes.
A list of the 871 parishes may be downloaded here.^[1]

↑ "Scottish Civil Parishes Index map" (PDF). scrol: Scotland's Census Records Online. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2015.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] National Records of Scotland. "Geography – Background Information – Civil Parishes and Islands" (PDF). Retrieved 19 January 2018.

[2] "Scottish Civil Parishes Index map" (PDF). scrol: Scotland's Census Records Online. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2015.

[1]

[1]