The closest thing to towns were the larger than average population concentrations around large monasteries, such as Dunkeld and St Andrews, and regionally significant fortifications.

David I established the first burghs in Scotland, initially only in Middle-English-speaking Lothian (note:Tain claims a charter dating from 1066 under Malcolm III).

In the reigns of Máel Coluim IV and William, burghs were added at Inverness, Banff, Cullen, Auldearn, Nairn, Inverurie, Kintore, Brechin, Forfar, Arbroath, Dundee, Lanark, Dumfries and (uniquely for the west coast) Ayr.

[5] At any rate, Whyte notes that medieval Scottish burghs, when compared to their English counterparts, were more uniform and, by the fourteenth century, more politically active.

[7] The burgh's vocabulary was composed totally of either Germanic terms (not necessarily or even predominantly English) such as croft, rood, gild, gait and wynd, or French ones such as provost, bailie, vennel, port and ferme.

[1] The towns are now sometimes referred to officially as "former royal burghs", for instance by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland.

In the Commons on 4 December 1972 Ronald Murray, the member of parliament (MP) for Edinburgh, Leith, stated "Most of the well-known cities and towns of Scotland became royal burghs by Charter.

[12] In 1977, Alick Buchanan-Smith (MP for North Angus and Mearns) asked Frank McElhone, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland: "Why a community council for a former Royal burgh is not able to use the words "Royal Burgh" in its title; and what scope there is for the continuance of historical titles under the present organisation of local authorities."

[14] Lord Lyon has permitted the armorial bearings of a number of royal burghs to be rematriculated by community councils.