- Lothian
Lothian ("Lowden" in Scots, "Lodainn" in Gaelic) forms a traditional region of
Scotland , lying between the southern shore of theFirth of Forth and theLammermuir Hills .Historically, the term Lothian is used for a province encompassing the present area plus the
Scottish Borders region. The name is related to the legendary British King Loth or Lot. In the 7th century it became the northern part of the Angle Kingdom ofNorthumbria .Subsequent Scottish history saw Lothian subdivided into the shires of
West Lothian ,Midlothian andEast Lothian — leading to the phrase "the Lothians". Occasionally these were known by the anglicised names of "Linlithgow shire", "Edinburghshire" and "Haddingtonshire", which omitted all reference to Lothian. Fact|date=June 2008Lothian Regional Council (1975–1996)
The
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 abolished the counties and burghs as local government units, replacing them with Regions and Districts. Lothian Regional Council formally took over responsibility in May 1975.The Region was responsible for education, social work, water, sewerage, transport (including local buses within Edinburgh). Certain services provided by joint boards with neighbouring Borders Regional Council - notably for Lothian & Borders Police and the Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade. These joint authorities continue.
The two-tier system of local government was criticised by some as providing needless duplication. The
Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 resulted in the abolition of Lothian Regional Council, with its replacement by a unitary system of local government. The former District Council areas of West Lothian,City of Edinburgh , Midlothian and East Lothian were used as the basis for the new Councils. The last convener of Lothian Regional Council wasEric Milligan , who later served asLord Provost of Edinburgh . Lothian Regional Council also organised a series of lectures known as the "Lothian Lectures", a notable speaker wasMikhail Gorbachev .Lothian continues to have joint boards for valuation and electoral registration. Lothian Health Board (NHS) was not a local government responsibility.
The name lived on in the LRT, or Lothian Regional Transport, bus company, known as Lothian Buses from 2000, and the
NHS Lothian trust.Language
In the post-Roman period, Lothian was dominated by
Brythonic speakers whose language was akin to Welsh and Cornish and came to be part of "Hen Ogledd ". Remnants can be found in placenames such as Lothian,Tranent ,Linlithgow andPenicuik cite web |url=http://www.cyberscotia.com/ancient-lothian/index.html |title=Ancient Lothian |publisher=cyberscotia.net ] .Lothian is notable in Scotland for being the only part of the nation to have been mainly Anglo-Saxon throughout the history of the
Kingdom of Scotland and was described byAdam of Dryburgh as "The land of the English in the Kingdom of the Scots".Although one of the few areas of mainland Scotland where the Gaelic language did not achieve dominance — the presence of the language is attributed to the "temporary occupation…the presence of a landowning Gaelic-speaking aristocracy and their followers for something like 150-200 years" [cite book |author=W. F. H. Nicolaisen |title=Scottish Place Names |pages=240 pp |id=ISBN 0-859-76556-3 |publisher=John Donald Publishers |year=2001] — there are some placenames from the language [cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4396660.stm |title=Gaelic roots need to be unearthed |publisher=
BBC News |date=2005-11-02 |author=Craig Cockburn] , e.g. Dalry,Dunbar ,Currie ,Balerno andCockenzie .Over time and due to various factors the language of the Lothians and the former Kingdom of
Northumbria , a northern variety ofMiddle English , also known asEarly Scots came to displace Gaelic as the language of lowland Scotland and adopted for itself the name "Scottis" ("Scots") which had previously been used to refer to Gaelic, which later became known as "Erse" ("Irish") — now considered derogatory. The dialects of the Lothians, are sometimes considered to be part ofCentral Scots .Notes
External links
* [http://www.lothianbuses.com/ Lothian Buses]
* [http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/ NHS Lothian]
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