Counties

This page is about the counties of Great Britain and Ireland.

See also County Towns.

Emblems, flags, coats of arms (England – selected)

Three Saxon knives (similar to scimitars) (cf. Middlesex)		Essex
White horse rampant		Kent
Red rose		Lancashire
Three Saxon knives (similar to scimitars), with a crown on top (cf. Essex)		Middlesex
Knot		Staffordshire
Six martlets (mythical birds), arranged in an inverted triangle, with a crown on top		Sussex
Bear and ragged staff		Warwickshire
Three black pears		Worcestershire
White rose		Yorkshire

England

Whipsnade Zoo, Woburn Abbey		Bedfordshire
Biggleswade, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard and Sandy are towns in
Broadmoor Hospital; Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; Ascot (and its racecourse)		Berkshire
Gives its name to a breed of pig, of which Wodehouse's Empress of Blandings, Orwell's Napoleon (in Animal Farm) and Beatrix Potter's Pig–Wig (in The Tale of Pigling Bland) are fictional examples
Milton Keynes, Bletchley Park		Buckinghamshire
Medmenham Abbey (venue of Sir Francis Dashwood's notorious Hellfire Club, 1749–60)
Chequers (the Prime Minister's official country residence – near Wendover)
Burnham Beeches (ancient forest)
Stilton (village – the eponymous cheese was originally sold there, but never actually made there); March (once the county town of a smaller administrative county)		Cambridgeshire
Anglesey Abbey (on a site probably named after the Angles)
Devil's Dyke is a major earthwork (over 7 miles long, 30ft high in places) in
The Middle Level Navigations, said to be England's fifth longest canal, are used for land drainage in
Holme Fen SSSI – including Holme Posts, at 9 feet below sea level believed to be the lowest point of land in Great Britain
Beeston Castle, Little Moreton Hall, Quarry Bank Mill (Styal)		Cheshire
Northwich, Nantwich, Congleton, Warrington, Crewe, Sandbach, Macclesfield
The Bridestones (Neolithic cairn)
Longest coastline (England); the only English county that has a border with only one other		Cornwall
Mullion Cove, St. Ives Bay, St. Agnes Head; Mousehole, Come–to–good, Indian Queens, Playing Place, Tintagel; St. Mawes Castle
St. Michael's Mount (a small tidal island, linked by a man–made causeway to the town of Marazion)
Minack (my–nack) open–air theatre
Lost Gardens of Heligan
Kernow is the Celtic name for
St. Piran's flag (a white cross on a black background) is the flag of
Formed in 1974 by the merger of Cumberland and Westmorland		Cumbria
St. Bees Head is the westernmost point of
Cartmel Priory (and racecourse)
Melmerby, Langwathby and Glassonby are villages in
28% of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is in
Alfreton, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Belper, Chesterfield, Clay Cross, Matlock, Ripley and Wirksworth are major towns in		Derbyshire
The majority of the Peak District National Park is in
Buckfast Abbey, Castle Drogo, Westward Ho!		Devon
The only English county that has two separate mainland coastlines (i.e. excluding islands)
Hangman cliffs (Great and Little Hangman) – Britain's highest sea cliffs
The River Piddle, and the villages of Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Piddlehinton, Piddletrenthide, Affpuddle, Briantspuddle, and Turnerspuddle (all of which it flows through); also the village of Shitterton, and the clifftop valley Scratchy Bottom		Dorset
Maiden Castle, Corfe Castle; Portland Bill, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, Old Harry Rocks (features of the Jurassic Coast); Cerne Abbas Giant
Blue Vinney cheese comes from
Hugh Fearnley–Whittingstall's River Cottage
Toronto, Pity Me, Bishop Auckland, Crook: towns in		Durham
Stansted Airport		Essex
Canvey, Foulness and Mersea are islands off the coast of; The Naze is a headland on the coast of; Maldon – town famous for its sea salt
Basildon, Billericay, Braintree, Brentwood; Great Dunmow, Saffron Walden
Epping Forest (now partly in Greater London)
Forest of Dean, Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust, The Cotswolds (mainly)		Gloucestershire
Source of the River Thames (Seven Springs)
Highgrove House; Badminton – the village that gave its name to the family seat of the Dukes of Beaufort, and hence a sport and a prestigious annual five–day equestrian event
Pennsylvania, Upper & Lower Slaughter (villages)
Southampton, Portsmouth and Basingstoke are the three largest cities or towns in		Hampshire
Aldershot, Andover, Eastleigh, Fareham, Farnborough, Gosport and Havant are other towns in
Beaulieu (village) – home to Palace House, seat of the Barons Montagu, which includes the National Motor Museum
Watership Down (the real–life location in which Richard Adams's novel is set)
Pilot Hill (938 ft / 286 m), in the North Wessex Downs AONB, is the highest point of
New Forest
Haslar Royal Naval Hospital
Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City (Britain's first two Garden Cities – founded 1903 and 1920 respectively, designated New Towns 1948 and 1946); also Hemel Hempstead New Town (designated 1947)		Hertfordshire
Despite the above ... St. Albans is the only city in
Became part of Cambridgeshire in 1974		Huntingdonshire
Motto: Invicta (unconquered)		Kent
Leeds, Hever, Scotney, Sissinghurst, Upnor and Walmer castles
North Foreland: extreme North–East tip of
Dungeness; Borstal (village and eponymous institution)
Isle of Thanet; Isle of Sheppey
Ham, Sandwich: towns in (although in fact Ham is hardly even a hamlet, 1–2 miles south of Sandwich)
Royal Tunbridge Wells (pop. 56,000), Tonbridge (2007 pop. 30,000) (4 miles apart)
Charnwood Forest, Rutland Water, Donington Park (motor racing circuit), Belvoir Castle		Leicestershire
Twycross Zoo, Bosworth Field
Rutland was part of (1974–97)
Wymondham (village where Stilton cheese was originally made – it can also now be made in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire); Market Harborough
England's second largest county, by area – in 1831, and also in 2014		Lincolnshire
Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Scunthorpe; Mablethorpe, Skegness, Sutton–on–Sea (coastal resorts)
Traditionally divided into the Parts of Kesteven, Parts of Holland, and Parts of Lindsey
Market Rasen (racecourse); Burghley House (home since 1961 of the Burghley Horse Trials, one of the six leading three–day equestrian events in the world)
RAF Coningsby – home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight; Cranwell – site of the RAF College, founded in 1920
Woolsthorpe Manor – birthplace and family home of Isaac Newton
Tattershall Castle – "the finest piece of medieval brick–work in England" (built 1430–50)
Sandringham House; Sheringham (seaside town); Cromer, King's Lynn		Norfolk
Scratby and California (adjacent seaside resorts)
Happisburgh, where the oldest evidence of human occupation ever found in the UK (flint tools over 800,000 years old) were discovered in 2010, is a village in
Althorp (Princess Diana's ancestral home), Fotheringhay Castle		Northamptonshire
Corby, Daventry, Kettering, Oundle, Wellingborough (towns)
Naseby (village that gave its name to one of the decisive battles in the Civil War)
Silverstone motor racing circuit
Self–styled "Rose of the Shires"
England's most northerly county: Kielder Water, Kielder Forest, Rothbury Forest, Wark Forest; Flodden Field; Coldstream		Northumberland
Once Brewed Youth Hostel, and the Twice Brewed Inn (both in the village of Twice Brewed)
Blyth is the largest settlement in
Ashington, Bedlington, Cramlington, Doddington, Ellington, Kirkwhelpington, Longframlington, Widdrington (villages or towns)
Claims to have more castles than any other English county – including Alnwick, Bamburgh, Berwick, Dunstanburgh (both now ruined), Chillingworth, Warkworth and Langley (now a hotel)
England's least densely populated county (62 people per square kilometre, according to Wikipedia in 2020)
Rampton Secure Hospital		Nottinghamshire
The five dairies licensed to produce Stilton cheese are all in either Leicestershire or
Blenheim Palace; Woodstock, Henley–upon–Thames, Bicester		Oxfordshire
The villages of Brize Norton and Hook Norton, which give their names to (respectively) the RAF's largest station and one of Britain's last working Victorian tower breweries (founded in 1849)
Has borders with Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire
Uffington – the village famous for its Bronze Age 'white horse' (hill figure – "by far the oldest" in Britain)
England's smallest county, prior to 1974 when it became part of Leicestershire; now (since 1997) a unitary authority		Rutland
Shropshire: traditional abbreviation, and official name from 1974 to 1980		Salop
England's largest landlocked county		Shropshire
Stokesay and Ludlow castles
Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Market Drayton, Much Wenlock, Oswestry
The Wrekin, the Long Mynd, Stiperstones, the Clee Hills, Wenlock Edge
Acton Scott Working Farm Museum
The birthplaces of Robert Clive (near Market Drayton), Charles Darwin (the county town), Wilfred Owen (Oswestry) and Matthew Webb (Dawley) are all in
Ironbridge – village near the site of Abraham Darby's coal smelting works at Coalbrookdale, where the world's first cast iron bridge was built from 1777 and opened in 1781 (Abraham Darby's grandson, Abraham Darby III, was involved in the building project although his commission for the building work was withdrawn in 1776)
RAF Cosford – site of one of the two RAF Museums, and also famous for its running track, venue for several international competitions
Cadbury Castle; Sedgemoor; Wookey Hole, Cheddar Gorge; Wells (city)		Somerset
Hinkley Point (site of two nuclear power stations, with a third in the pipeline)
The town of Wincanton gives its name to one of three racecourses in
Stanton Drew stone circles – the largest of which is the second largest in Britain, after Avebury
Loggerheads		Staffordshire
The UK's National Memorial Arboretum – opened in 2001 near the village of Alrewas (ALL–ri–wuss)
The largest hoard of Anglo–Saxon treasure ever found (valued at £3.25 million) was found in 2009 in (in the parish of Hammerwich, near Lichfield), and named after
"Constable Country" largely refers to; Orford Castle; Sizewell nuclear power station; Eye		Suffolk
Runnymede; Charterhouse School; Esher (town)		Surrey
Epsom, Goodwood, Lingfield Park and Sandown Park racecourses; Brooklands motor racing circuit
Lancing (England's largest village); Bluebell Line (private railway)		Sussex
Beachy Head, Bodiam Castle, Herstmonceux Castle; Ashdown Forest – famous as the setting for the Winnie–the–Pooh stories; Plumpton racecourse		Sussex (East)
Rottingdean, Woodingdean, Pangdean, Saltdean (villages)
Arundel Castle, Gatwick Airport		Sussex (West)
Edgehill (battle site); Royal Leamington Spa		Warwickshire
Promotes itself as 'Shakespeare's County'
Formed in 1974 from parts of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire		West Midlands
Stonehenge; Avebury (including the world's largest megalithic stone circle), and nearby West Kennet Long Barrow; Silbury Hill (Europe's largest prehistoric man–made mound)		Wiltshire
Swindon (population 182,441 in 2011) is just over four and a half times the size of any other settlement, and Salisbury is the only city, in
Longleat; Marlborough School
Wilton (famous for carpets)
'Moonraker' is a nickname for a person from
Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Evesham		Worcestershire
England's largest county, post–1974		Yorkshire (North)
Castle Howard; ruins of Bolton Abbey, Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey
Boggle Hole Youth Hostel
Bempton Cliffs (an RSPB nature reserve, famous for its breeding seabirds)
Conisbrough Castle		Yorkshire (South)
The so–called Rhubarb Triangle – a 9–square–mile area (between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell), famous for producing early forced rhubarb		Yorkshire (West)

Wales

Welsh County Borough, created 1996: includes the towns of Abertillery, Ebbw Vale, and Tredegar		Blaenau Gwent
Formed in 1974 from the traditional county of Flintshire, most of Denbighshire, and part of Merionethshire; abolished in 1996		Clwyd
Welsh county, created in 1974: included the old counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, which were reinstated in 1996		Dyfed
Formed in 1974 from the traditional counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, most of Merionethshire, and parts of Denbighshire		Gwynedd
Skomer, Skokholm (bird sanctuaries with well–established puffin colonies) and Caldey (famous for its Cistercian abbey) are islands off the coast of		Pembrokeshire
Formed in 1974 from the traditional counties of Brecknock, Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire; the only Welsh county with no coastline		Powys
Welsh County Borough, created in 1996: includes the towns of Aberdare, Mountain Ash and Pontypridd		Rhondda Cynon Taf
Welsh County Borough, created in 1996: includes the towns of Abersychan, Blaenavon, Cwmbran and Pontypool		Torfaen

Scotland

The UK's largest local government area		Highland
Scottish council area, and former county: has borders with Aberdeenshire and Highland (and no other); name is also a boy's name, which is usually spelt differently (especially outside Scotland)		Moray (murray)
Gleneagles golf course (Scottish county)		Perthshire

Northern Ireland

Ballymena, Ballymoney; Giant's Causeway		Antrim
Bangor is the largest town in		Down
Mountains of Mourne
Cranfield Point – the southernmost point of Northern Ireland
Doesn't have a shore on Lough Neagh		Fermanagh
Largest in Northern Ireland (just over 23% of total)		Tyrone

Republic of Ireland

The three counties of Ulster that stayed in the Republic after partition		Cavan
		Donegal
		Monaghan
Republic of Ireland's largest and most southerly county; dubbed "the rebel county" by King Henry VII of England, for its support of Perkin Warbeck and his claim to the throne (1491)		Cork
Blarney Castle (including the Blarney Stone)		Cork
Malin Head (the northernmost point of Ireland)		Donegal
Connemara		Galway
Includes the most westerly (mainland) point of the British Isles		Kerry
Tralee is the administrative capital of
MacGillycuddy's Reeks, including Ireland's highest mountain Carrantuohill
The Blasket and Skellig islands (Skellig Michael, Little Skellig) and Valentia Island are off the coast of
Officially known as Queen's County, prior to 1922 (cf. King's County)		Laois
Smallest county in the Republic of Ireland; borders Northern Ireland (Counties Armagh and Down) on the eastern (Irish Sea) coast		Louth
Dundalk and Drogheda are the two largest towns in
Officially known as King's County, prior to 1922 (cf. Queen's County)		Offaly
Irish county with Ridings		Tipperary
On the east coast of Ireland – south of Dublin and north of Wexford; its mountains (known by its name) are Ireland's largest continuous upland area; the National Park (named after the mountains) includes Glendalough		Wicklow

Provinces

According to Wikipedia, "The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, meaning 'fifth part', indicates that there were once five [provinces]; however, in the medieval period there were more. The number of provinces and their delimitation fluctuated until 1610, when they were permanently set by the English administration of James I. The provinces of Ireland no longer serve administrative or political purposes but function as historical and cultural entities."

In descending order of population (2016 figures included):

Dublin is the chief city of	2,630,720		Leinster
Belfast is the chief city of	2,158,850		Ulster
Cork is the chief city of	1,280,394		Munster
Galway is the chief city of	550,742		Connacht (Connaught)

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24