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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 Dunbarton at the request of the Earl of Wigtown, the owner of the land, who was also Sheriff of Dumbarton. The county council disappeared in 1974/5 when local government in Scotland was reorganised. The council area was then divided into Dumbarton District Council, Bearsden and Milngavie District Council, Clydebank District Council, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth District Council and Strathkelvin District Council, the latter also containing a small part of the former Lanarkshire. For some major functions such as education, police, etc., the old County Council of Dunbarton was absorbed at the same time into the much larger Strathclyde Regional Council. The Regional identity was retained for some major functions such as fire service and police at the next reorganisation of local government in 1996, but for most purposes the area then found itself served by three new councils: Argyll and Bute Council (which took over the Helensburgh and Lomond part of Dumbarton District), West Dunbartonshire Council and East Dunbartonshire Council.
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