It was published in 1901, by T. C. and E. C. Jack of Edinburgh, combining six volumes (titled Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical, and Historical) written between 1884 and 1885, along with initial revisions made in 1895 and subsequent smaller revisions.

[2] It has entries for all of Scotland's cities, towns, villages and hamlets, beginning with Aven in today's Aberdeenshire and concluding with Zetland, the former name of Shetland.

It also includes tourist attractions, historical sites and the histories of family names and clans.

In the book's closing 130-page "general survey" chapter, its sections are written by various notable contributors:[3] Subtitled a "new edition", the book includes a 1901 United Kingdom census appendix and a map of Scotland by Collins Bartholomew.

[8] Upon the publication of the final volume of the initial survey in 1885, geographer John Scott Keltie wrote:[3] Most articles seem to us to have been written or revised on the spot, the only method by which accuracy can be secured.