What is a burgh?

Burghs have, from the twelfth to the twentieth century, been one of the most important institutions in Scottish society. A 'burgh' is both more and less than a 'town'. Strictly, a burgh is a place, or community, with quite specific legal privileges. The first mention of burghs in Scotland is in the early twelfth century. Burghs were 'made' and did not emerge, as they were endowed by the king, or with the king's permission by an important churchman or nobleman, with certain specific rights. Usually, it was an existing township or settlement that was elevated to burghal status, as, for example, in the case of Dunfermline, Glasgow or Dundee. Occasionally, a burgh was founded on what might have been a 'greenfield' site, such as Dumbarton or Canongate.

One of the most important privileges was economic: the burgh gained the right to hold markets and fairs; and, significantly, the great concession of charging tolls or 'customs' on all those who attended. In time, also, burghs gained the authority to have their own councils and courts; their own municipal officers - provosts and bailies; and control of their own finances. In exchange, burghs were an important source of income to the burghal superior, whether he was the king or a wealthy nobleman or cleric. In spite of all these advantages, not all burghs were successful; some failed financially; others disappeared. Many continued, however, as the economic backbone of the Scottish nation. By the seventeenth century, a proliferation of new burghs to some extent undermined the old established monopoly of the medieval burghs; but they also brought a new vitality.

Burghs also became a distinct feature on the landscape. They were often formally laid out, typically as a single street; the burgage plots, where the burgess built his house, and backlands behind, where gardens, primitive industries and animal rearing might be found, ran back in herringbone pattern from the street front. Most burghs were, until the eighteenth century, very small, both in size and population - at least by modern standards - in most cases just a few hundred people. Between the 1770s and the 1830s, however, Scotland experienced wide-scale urbanization on a speed and scale not exceeded elsewhere in Europe. By 1850, one in three Scots lived in towns of over 20,000 people; by 1900, it was one in three. Despite this phenomenon, in many places, the original burgh layout and some of its other characteristic features can still be detected today. There are remnants of the early town plans still to be seen in many towns, including Haddington, Crail, Montrose, Ayr and Stornoway.