| Administrative History | Dingwall was made a royal burgh by Alexander II in 1226. In 1321 it was granted by Robert I to William, Earl of Ross. It reverted to the crown in 1475 with the forfeiture of the earldom of Ross and was re-erected as a royal burgh by James IV in 1498. In 1834 Dingwall became a police burgh, when it adopted the whole of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.46). The chief magistrate, five elective and one appointed police commissioners also served on the town council. With the adoption by Dingwall of the Police of Towns (Scotland) Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c.33) in 1855, this arrangement was changed: the fifteen town councillors became the fifteen police commissioners in accordance with the provisions relating specifically to royal burghs. This remained the case after Dingwall adopted the General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict., c. 101), in 1873, its council consisting of a provost, senior and junior baillie, a dean of guild, a treasurer and ten other councillors or police commissioners. It joined with Wick and four other burghs in returning a single member of parliament. From 1930, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V, c.25) Dingwall was classed as a small burgh, retaining this status until 1975, when its town council was abolished in accordance with the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65). Its powers were assumed by Highland Regional Council and Ross and Cromarty District Council. The population of the burgh at the 1871 census was 2125. A hundred years later, at the last census before abolition of the town council, it had risen to 4,232.
A short-lived sheriffdom of Dingwall, with the eponymous burgh as its head town, was in existence by 1265 and was still an independent jurisdiction in 1306, though apparently abolished not long thereafter. From the early 14th century until the creation of Ross-shire in 1661 Dingwall lay within the sheriffdom of Inverness. The burgh was the chief town of Ross and went on to become the county town (1889-1975) of the united county of Ross & Cromarty created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict., c.50). |