List of burghs in Scotland

A burgh (pronounced burruh) is the Scots' term for a town or a municipality. It is correspondent with the Scandinavian 'Borg', the English- 'Borough', and the German 'Burg'

Burghs were highly autonomous units of local government in Scotland from at least the 12th century until their abolition in 1975 when a new regional structure of local government was introduced across the country. Usually based upon a town, they had a municipal corporation and certain rights, such as self-government and representation in the sovereign Parliament of Scotland adjourned in 1707.

Historically, the most important burghs were royal burghs, followed by burghs of regality and burghs of barony. Some newer settlements were only designated as police burghs, a classification which also applies to most of the older burghs.

It should be noted that the word 'burgh' is generally not used as a synonym for 'town' or 'city' in everyday speech, but is reserved mostly for government and administrative purposes. Legally speaking, burghs in Scotland were abolished in 1975, and the term has since fallen into disuse.

For a list of towns and cities in Scotland, see the category Towns in Scotland.

Burghs by county
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

Royal burghs that were counties of themselves
These four burghs were redesignated as Counties of Cities in 1930

Aberdeenshire
Note: The royal burgh of Aberdeen was part of this county until 1900. &Dagger; Absorbed by Aberdeen royal burgh 1891

Angus (also known as Forfarshire)
Note: The royal burgh of Dundee was part of this county until 1894. &Dagger; Absorbed by Dundee royal burgh 1913

Fife
&dagger; Burghs merged 1930 &Dagger; Dysart absorbed by Kircaldy royal burgh 1930

Kirkcudbrightshire
&dagger; Maxwelltown burgh was absorbed by Dumfries royal burgh 1931.

Lanarkshire
Note: The royal burgh of Glasgow was part of the county until 1893. &dagger; Burghs merged 1920

Midlothian (also known as Edinburghshire)
Note: The royal burgh of Edinburgh and its liberties formed a separate county of itself from the thirteenth century.

&dagger; Burghs merged 1920 &Dagger; Burghs absorbed by Edinburgh royal burgh in years shown (Portobello continued, however, as a separate parliamentary burgh until 1918)

Perthshire
&dagger; Burghs merged 1930

Renfrewshire
&dagger; Burghs absorbed by Glasgow royal burgh on dates shown