County of Bute

The County of Bute or Buteshire (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Bhòid) is one of the registration counties of Scotland.

Buteshire was also a local government county of Scotland with its own elected county council from 1890 to 1975. The council area comprised a number of islands in the Firth of Clyde, between the local government counties of Argyll and Ayrshire, the principal islands being Bute, Arran, Great Cumbrae and Little Cumbrae. The county town was Rothesay, located on the Isle of Bute.

Local government councils

Bute had its own elected local government Council from 1890 to 1975. However, in 1975 this system was superseded and Buteshire was divided between the Argyll and Cunninghame districts of the Strathclyde Region. The island of Bute itself became part of Argyll whilst Arran and the Cumbraes became part of Cunninghame.

In 1996 as a result of local government council reorganisation when unitary council areas were superseded and new councils created, Bute became part of Argyll and Bute, and the other islands are now within North Ayrshire.

Buteshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Before the Act of Union 1707, the barons of the shire of Bute elected commissioners to represent them in the unicameral Parliament of Scotland and in the Convention of Estates. After 1708, Buteshire and Caithness alternated in returning one member the House of Commons of Great Britain and later to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

List of shire commissioners

References

See also

Buteshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Buteshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918.

From 1708 to 1832 Buteshire and Caithness were paired as alternating constituencies: one of the constituencies elected a Member of Parliament (MP) to one parliament, the other to the next. The areas which were covered by the two constituencies are quite remote from each other, Caithness in the northeast of Scotland and Buteshire in the southwest.

From 1832 to 1918, Buteshire was represented continuously by its own MP.

Boundaries

From 1708 to 1832, the Buteshire constituency covered the county of Bute minus the parliamentary burgh of Rothesay, which was a component of the Ayr Burghs constituency. In 1832, Rothesay was merged into the Buteshire constituency.

By 1892, Bute had become a local government county and, throughout Scotland, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, county boundaries had been redefined for all purposes except parliamentary representation. 26 years were to elapse before constituency boundaries were redrawn, by the Representation of the People Act 1918, to take account of new local government boundaries.