How many shires in great britain

Rothesay , Brodick , Lochranza , Millport. Wick , Castletown , Halkirk , Thurso. Clackmannan , Alloa , Dollar , Tillicoultry , Tullibody. Cromarty , Ullapool. Ruthin , Abergele , Denbigh , Llangollen , Wrexham. Downpatrick , Bangor , Holywood , Newcastle , Strangford.

Enniskillen , Belleek , Irvinestown. Stonehaven , Banchory , Inverbervie , Laurencekirk. Kinross , Milnathort. Londonderry , Coleraine , Limavady. Edinburgh , Bonnyrigg , Dalkeith , Musselburgh , Penicuik. Montgomery , Llanidloes , Machynlleth , Newtown , Welshpool. Elgin , Fochabers , Lossiemouth , Forres , Rothes. Nairn , Auldearn , Cawdor.

Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff. In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts. Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland, the word is pronounced to rhyme with "fire". As a suffix in an English or Welsh place name it is pronounced rhymes with "fir". In England and Wales, the term "shire county" is used to refer to counties which are not metropolitan counties. It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire".

These counties are typically though not always named after their county town. Okay, 23 down, 16 to go. This is easy. The ancient kingdoms Then there are those whose names relate to which Germanic tribe settled them in about the 6th century, and to its location relative to all the other places those same settlers went. The easy ones are Essex , Middlesex and Sussex: the eastern, middle and southern areas settled by the Saxons.

Middlesex, incidentally, never seems to have been a kingdom in its own right, but was for many years a part of Essex. The counties as of Image: Wikimedia Commons. Why is there no county of Wessex, you may ask?

There was a Kingdom of Wessex, which covered a substantial chunk of south central Britain. Kent , too, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom a Jute one, to be specific , but its name actually goes back even further.

Northumberland was significantly smaller than the Kingdom of Northumbria, which also included Yorkshire, Durham, and parts of Lancashire and lowland Scotland: the traditional country would more accurately have been known as Northtyneland, in fact. Far flung tribes Most of the rest are named, in some way or another, after the people who lived in them, even if they never got to be kingdoms.

Most of these hold-outs are at the more marginal parts of the country, to north and west, which reflects their relatively late inclusion in the Anglo-Saxon county system. Two, however, were included in that system all along, but still refused to play by the rules. This one also sometimes used to get a -shire, probably dating back to the early Middle Ages when the Latin Dumnonia became the Old English Defenascir.

The Roman name for the area was Cornubia. Still, nearly there. Cumberland is another tribal name with links to the Welsh. It takes its name from the Cymry, the name of the Celtic inhabitants of a region that — like Cornwall, and Wales — was never really a part of the Anglo-Saxon world. Cymry shares roots with Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales.