The 1889 Act created a country-wide system of local government based on pre-existing counties and burghs.
Prior to this act burghs had their own elected local government councils but counties did not.
Over this period local government in Scotland was based on three units: counties, burghs and parishes.
[1] Burghs were a form of town government dating back to the twelfth century.
Originally created by charter, and mainly concerned with trading privileges, they had been reformed earlier in the nineteenth century.
[5] In 1893 Glasgow became a county of a city by private act of parliament[6][7] Dundee followed in 1894 and Aberdeen in 1899.
Parochial boards had been established in 1845 for the administration of poor law, and, outside burghs, had gradually acquired various public health duties.
Accordingly, only one new large burgh was formed at East Kilbride, which required the passing of a local act of parliament in 1967.
[15] The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 created a system of nine two-tier regions and three single-tier islands council areas, and this system completely replaced local government counties and burghs in 1975.
The 1973 Act was based closely on proposals in the Wheatley Report, produced by a Royal Commission into Scottish local government in 1969.