Inverness-shire

The County of Inverness (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Nis) is a historic county of Scotland. Covering much of the Highlands, it is geographically Scotland's largest county, though one of the smallest in terms of population, with 67,733 people or 1.34% of the national population.

Definition

The extent of the lieutenancy area was defined in 1975 as covering the districts of Inverness, Badenoch & Strathspey, and Lochaber. Thus it differs from the county in that it includes parts of what were once Moray and Banffshire, but does not include any of the Outer Hebrides which were given their own lieutenancy area — the Western Isles.

Geography

Inverness-shire is Scotland's largest county, and the second largest in the UK as a whole after Yorkshire. It borders Ross to the north, Nairnshire, Moray, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire to the east, and Perthshire and Argyll to the south.

It covers a large mainland area and various island areas off the west coast. The mainland area has coastline in both the east and the west. The island areas include North Uist, South Uist and Harris in the Outer Hebrides and Skye and the Small Isles in the Inner Hebrides.

Inverness-shire (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Before the Acts of Union 1707, the barons of the shire of Inverness elected commissioners to represent them in the unicameral Parliament of Scotland and in the Convention of the Estates.

From 1708 Inverness-shire was represented by one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Great Britain.

List of shire commissioners

References

See also

Inverness-shire (UK Parliament constituency)

Inverness-shire 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 until 1918.

There was also a burgh constituency called Inverness Burghs, 1708 to 1918, and a county constituency called Inverness, 1918 to 1983.

Boundaries

The Inverness-shire Member of Parliament (MP) represented, nominally, the county of Inverness minus the Inverness parliamentary burgh, which was represented as a component of Inverness District of Burghs. However, by 1892 the boundaries of the county had been redefined for all purposes except parliamentary representation, and it had become a local government area, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. 26 years were to elapse before a review of constituency boundaries took account of new local government boundaries. Results of the review were implemented under the Representation of the People Act 1918.

In 1918, the constituency was largely replaced by two new county constituencies. The Western Isles constituency was created to cover Outer Hebridean areas of the county of Inverness, as well as part of the county of Ross and Cromarty. The Inverness constituency was created to cover the rest of the county of Inverness, including the parliamentary burgh.