Strathclyde [Gaelic,=Clyde valley], one of several early medieval Celtic or Welsh kingdoms in present-day S Scotland and N England. Strathclyde was in SW Scotland. To the east was the kingdom of Manaw Gododdin and to the south, Rheged. Little is known of the history of Strathclyde and the other Welsh (Cumbrian) kingdoms. The origin of Strathclyde is uncertain, but there is evidence that the kingdom had been consolidated by the middle of the 5th cent. In 945, King Edmund of Wessex defeated Strathclyde and awarded it to King Malcolm of Scotland; however, Scotland did not permanently absorb the kingdom until the 11th cent. The reason for the disappearance of the ancient British language and culture in the kingdoms is not definitely known. Dumbarton was the principal town in Strathclyde.

This article is about the former administrative region. For other uses see Strathclyde (disambiguation).

Strathclyde (Srath Chluaidh in Gaelic, meaning "valley of the River Clyde") is a historic subdivision of Scotland, and was one of the regional council areas of Scotland from 1975 to 1996.

The Region

Strathclyde Region was named after the ancient Kingdom of Strathclyde, which broadly covered the northern end of the same area (with the significant exceptions of Argyll and the islands of Bute and Arran.¹. The original 'kingdom' included modern Dumfries and Galloway and part of Cumbria).

It was the region with the largest land area in the country, with a population in excess of 2.9 million and an area stretching from the Highlands to the Southern Uplands. The politics of the region were by and large dominated by the Labour Party. The first convener was the Rev Geoff Shaw, who died in 1978. The regional and administrative capital as well as the largest city was Glasgow, the rest of the Region comprised the former counties of Ayr, Argyll (with the exception of the far north of the county), Bute, Dunbarton, Lanark and Renfrew.

The system of regions and districts (replacing the former county and burgh councils) were created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and entered into effect in May 1975.

Sub-regions and Districts

There were 19 districts within Strathclyde Region which lay within 6 'sub-regions' or 'divisions' which corresponded to the counties they replaced:

Argyll Sub-region (also known as Argyll and Bute)'''

• Argyll (also known as Argyll and Bute)

Ayr Sub-region

• Cumnock and Doon Valley
• Cunninghame
• Kilmarnock and Loudoun
• Kyle and Carrick

Dumbarton Sub-region

• Bearsden and Milngavie
• Clydebank
• Cumbernauld and Kilsyth
• Dumbarton
• Strathkelvin

Glasgow Sub-region

• Glasgow

Lanark Sub-region

• Clydesdale
• East Kilbride
• Hamilton
• Monklands
• Motherwell

Renfrew Sub-region

• Eastwood
• Renfrew
• Inverclyde

The modern unitary authorities in the former Strathclyde Region

The regional tier of government was abolished in 1996 and its responsibilities merged with the District Councils to create unitary authorities (of which there are 32 in Scotland). The following Unitary Authorities cover parts of the former Strathclyde Region:

• Argyll and Bute
• East Ayrshire
• East Dunbartonshire
• East Renfrewshire
• City of Glasgow
• Inverclyde
• North Ayrshire
• North Lanarkshire
• Renfrewshire
• South Ayrshire
• South Lanarkshire
• West Dunbartonshire

Some local services which used to be run by the regional council are now run jointly by its successor authorities. These include the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Authority, the Strathclyde Police Force, and the Strathclyde Fire Brigade.

Notes

• Note 1: Strathclyde was a Brythonic kingdom, while Argyll was the heartland of the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata having been taken over, probably from Picts. Bute and Arran were Brythonic until appropriated by Dál Riata, then by Scandinavians. See Scottish people.