Dunbartonshire (Siorrachd Dhùn Bhreatainn in Gaelic) or the
County of Dumbarton, is a lieutenancy area and a registration
county of Scotland. Between 1890 and 1975 it was a county. The
area had been previously been part of the historic district of
Lennox, which was a duchy in the Peerage of Scotland, see Duke
of Lennox. Dumbarton was formerly the county town, and the
county was originally also spelled Dumbartonshire. The County
Council, set up under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889
adopted the spelling 'Dunbarton' at the start of the 20th
century. Dumbarton is thought to derive from the Gaelic Dùn
Breatainn (Fort of the Britains), but the town stuck with the
name Dumbarton, and some people continue to refer to the county
as Dumbartonshire. The county retained a large exclave despite
the boundary changes in the 1890s elsewhere in Scotland,
containing Kirkintilloch and Cumbernauld, between Stirlingshire
and Lanarkshire : this area had originally been part of
Stirlingshire, but had been annexed to Dunbar