Traditional counties of the British Isles
| The traditional counties of Ireland |
| |
The
traditional counties of the British Isles are unofficial, informal and non-administrative divisions of the
British Isles.
The British Isles have been divided into areas for administrative and geographical demarcation purposes for several hundred years, and these have been known as
counties for various periods of time in the
constituent countries. Acts of Parliament in the last two centuries altered these county boundaries and created new units for administration (also known as counties). Those counties existing previous to these changes became known informally as
traditional counties, or "ancient counties", (or indeed by other names, listed below). The areas they refer to no longer have official use, but are still sometimes used in unofficial, non-administrative settings.
There is no single canonical set of "traditional" counties, as the boundaries have varied constantly over time. However, in
England and
Wales, the phrase is often employed to refer to the (largely static) boundaries that existed between the 16th Century
Laws in Wales acts and the creation of
administrative counties in the
Local Government Acts of the late nineteenth century.
Traditional counties are also sometimes referred to by the terms "ancient", "geographic", "ancient or geographic", "historic", "old", or "former" counties.
An example of this usage in England is seen in the censuses of 1901, in which the county borders immediately previous to the
Local Government Act 1888 are referred to as "ancient counties" [
1]
Some
pressure groups (sometimes labelled as the "traditional counties movement") exist to promote the use of these boundaries for current purposes; these groups include the
Association of British Counties and
County Watch.
*
England—
Traditional counties of England*
Ireland—
Counties of Ireland*
Scotland—
Counties of Scotland*
Wales—
Traditional counties of Wales*
Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom
