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County town

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A county town is the 'capital' of a county in Ireland or the United Kingdom. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county.

In the case of Yorkshire in England, there are three county towns, one for each Riding: Northallerton for the North Riding, Beverley for the East Riding, and Wakefield for the West Riding. Contrary to popular belief, there are no civil administrative offices for the county of Yorkshire as a whole (not even in York).

Note that in Eastern Canada and the United States of America, the term county seat is usually used for the same purpose. However, in the state of Louisiana the term parish seat is used instead.

List of county towns

England

Historic counties of England

Non-metropolitan counties of England

Scotland

Counties of Scotland

Wales

Historic counties of Wales

Northern Ireland

Historic counties of Northern Ireland

Note - Despite the fact that Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, it is not the county town of any county. Greater Belfast straddles two counties (Antrim and Down).

Republic of Ireland

Traditional counties of the Republic of Ireland

Other counties of the Republic of Ireland

Former county towns

In 1965 and 1974 there were major administrative boundary changes in England and Wales and administrative counties were replaced with new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The boundaries underwent more major alterations between 1995 and 1998 to create unitary authorities and some of the traditional counties and county towns were restored for administrative purposes.

Former administrative counties of England

Former non-metropolitan counties of England

Former counties of Wales

The eight administrative counties that existed in Wales between 1974 and 1996 were subsequently retained as lieutenancy areas. Since these areas have no administrative or judicial functions they no longer have county towns. The county towns in Glamorgan were seldom referred to as such even when the administrative counties existed.

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