# Vice-county

A vice-county (also spelled vice county) is a geographical division of the British Isles. It is also called biological vice-county as it is used for purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering, or sometimes called a Watsonian vice-county as vice-counties were introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica, published in 1852. Watson's vice-counties were based on the ancient counties of Britain, but often subdividing these boundaries to create smaller, more uniform units, and considering exclaves to be part of the surrounding vice-county.
In 1901 Robert Lloyd Praeger introduced a similar system for Ireland and its off-shore islands.
Vice-counties are the "standard geographical area for county based [...] recording". They provide a stable basis for recording using similarly sized units, and, although National Grid-based reporting has grown in popularity, vice-counties remain a useful mapping boundary, employed in many regional surveys, especially county floras and national lists. This allows data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily. The vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent local government reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared.
In 2002, to mark the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Watsonian vice-county system, the NBN Trust commissioned the digitisation of the 112 vice-county boundaries for England, Scotland and Wales, based on 420 original one-inch to the mile maps annotated by Dandy in 1947, and held at the Natural History Museum, London. The resulting datafiles were much more detailed than anything readily available to recorders up to that point, and were made freely available (as a beta version). Intended for use with modern GIS and biological recording software, a final 'standard' version was released in 2008. Up until that point, county recorders only had general access to a set of two fold-out vice-county maps covering the entirety of Great Britain, published in 1969.

## Vice-county systems

The vice-county system was first introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852. He refined the system in later volumes. The geographical area that Watson called "Britain" consisted of the island of Great Britain with all of its offshore islands, plus the Isle of Man, but excluding the Channel Islands. This area was divided into 112 vice-counties with larger counties divided; for example, Devon into the vice-counties of North Devon and South Devon, and Yorkshire into five vice-counties. Each of these 112 vice-counties has a name and a number. Thus Vice-county 38, often abbreviated to "VC38", is called "Warwickshire".
In 1901, Robert Lloyd Praeger extended the system of vice-counties to Ireland and its off-shore islands, based on an earlier suggestion by C. C. Babington in 1859. The Irish vice-counties were based on the historic 32 counties of Ireland, with the six largest being sub-divided; for example, the county of Cork was divided into three vice-counties. This produced a total of 40 vice-counties for Ireland, which were numbered from H1 to H40 ("H" for "Hibernia"). As with the 112 vice-counties of Britain, each vice-county has a name as well as a number. Thus Vice-county (or VC) H3 is "West Cork".
Combining these two systems produces a 152 vice-county system. The exclusion of the Channel Islands from Watson's system for Britain has led to variations between different recording schemes. The geographical area covered by the 152 vice-counties may be described as the "British Isles", as in the 2008 Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles. Other recording schemes regard the "British Isles" as including the Channel Islands. As they are not part of the 152 vice-county system, the Channel Islands may be added as an extra vice-county, making 153 in total, being indicated by letter codes such as "C" or "CI". Less usually, each of the five separate islands may be treated as a vice-county, giving 157 vice-counties in total.
Alternative counts of vice-counties used in different recording schemes are shown in the table below.
Alternative counts of vice-counties :
| Count | Originator | Descriptions |
| 112 | Watson | (Great) Britain (including the Isle of Man) |
| 40 | Praeger | Ireland |
| 0, 1 or 5 | | Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm) |
| 152, 153 or 157 | | British Isles, (Great) Britain and Ireland |
The vice-counties of Britain alone may be described as "Watsonian vice-counties", or this term may be used for the combined vice-counties of Britain and Ireland, which may also be described as "Watson-Praeger vice-counties". In all cases, the Channel Islands may be excluded or included, so that the count of vice-counties varies, as noted in the table above.

## List of vice-counties

| Southern England VCVice county VC1West Cornwall with Scilly VC2East Cornwall VC3South Devon VC4North Devon VC5South Somerset VC6North Somerset VC7North Wiltshire VC8South Wiltshire VC9Dorset VC10Isle of Wight VC11South Hampshire VC12North Hampshire VC13West Sussex VC14East Sussex VC15East Kent VC16West Kent VC17Surrey VC18South Essex VC19North Essex VC20Hertfordshire VC21Middlesex VC22Berkshire VC23Oxfordshire VC24Buckinghamshire VC25East Suffolk VC26West Suffolk VC27East Norfolk VC28West Norfolk VC29Cambridgeshire VC30Bedfordshire VC31Huntingdonshire VC32Northamptonshire VC33East Gloucestershire VC34West Gloucestershire | Northern England, Wales VCVice county VC35Monmouthshire VC36Herefordshire VC37Worcestershire VC38Warwickshire VC39Staffordshire VC40Shropshire VC41Glamorganshire VC42Breconshire VC43Radnorshire VC44Carmarthenshire VC45Pembrokeshire VC46Cardiganshire VC47Montgomeryshire VC48Merionethshire VC49Caernarvonshire VC50Denbighshire VC51Flintshire VC52Anglesey VC53South Lincolnshire VC54North Lincolnshire VC55Leicestershire with Rutland VC56Nottinghamshire VC57Derbyshire VC58Cheshire VC59South Lancashire VC60West Lancashire VC61South-east Yorkshire VC62North-east Yorkshire VC63South-west Yorkshire VC64Mid-west Yorkshire VC65North-west Yorkshire VC66County Durham VC67South Northumberland VC68North Northumberland VC69Westmorland with Furness VC70Cumberland | Scotland, Isle of Man VCVice county VC71Isle of Man VC72Dumfriesshire VC73Kirkcudbrightshire VC74Wigtownshire VC75Ayrshire VC76Renfrewshire VC77Lanarkshire VC78Peeblesshire VC79Selkirkshire VC80Roxburghshire VC81Berwickshire VC82East Lothian VC83Midlothian VC84West Lothian VC85Fifeshire VC86Stirlingshire VC87West Perthshire VC88Mid Perthshire VC89East Perthshire VC90Angus VC91Kincardineshire VC92South Aberdeenshire VC93North Aberdeenshire VC94Banffshire VC95Moray VC96East Inverness-shire VC97West Inverness-shire VC98Argyllshire VC99Dunbartonshire VC100Clyde Isles VC101Kintyre VC102South Ebudes VC103Mid Ebudes VC104North Ebudes VC105West Ross & Cromarty VC106East Ross & Cromarty VC107East Sutherland VC108West Sutherland VC109Caithness VC110Outer Hebrides VC111Orkney VC112Shetland | Ireland VCVice county H1South Kerry H2North Kerry H3West Cork H4Mid-Cork H5East Cork H6Waterford H7South Tipperary H8Limerick H9Clare H10North Tipperary H11Kilkenny H12Wexford H13Carlow H14Laois H15South-east Galway H16West Galway H17North-east Galway H18Offaly H19Kildare H20Wicklow H21Dublin H22Meath H23Westmeath H24Longford H25Roscommon H26East Mayo H27West Mayo H28Sligo H29Leitrim H30Cavan H31Louth H32Monaghan H33Fermanagh H34East Donegal H35West Donegal H36Tyrone H37Armagh H38Down H39Antrim H40Londonderry |

## Vice-counties of Ireland listed by county, province and jurisdiction

Praeger's fieldwork mostly predates and ignores the county boundary changes made in 1899 under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. Divergences from the pre-1899 boundaries are noted below.
Vice-counties of Ireland :
| VC | Vice county | County | Province | Jurisdiction |
| H1 | South Kerry | Kerry | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H2 | North Kerry | Kerry | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H3 | West Cork | Cork | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H4 | Mid-Cork | Cork | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H5 | East Cork | Cork | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H6 | Waterford | Waterford | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H7 | South Tipperary | Tipperary | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H8 | Limerick | Limerick | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H9 | Clare | Clare | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H10 | North Tipperary | Tipperary | Munster | Republic of Ireland |
| H11 | Kilkenny | Kilkenny | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H12 | Wexford | Wexford | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H13 | Carlow | Carlow | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H14 | Queen's County | Laois | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H15 | South-east Galway | Galway | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H16 | West Galway | Galway | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H17 | North-east Galway | Galway | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H18 | King's County | Offaly | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H19 | Kildare | Kildare | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H20 | Wicklow | Wicklow | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H21 | Dublin | Dublin | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H22 | Meath | Meath | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H23 | Westmeath | Westmeath | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H24 | Longford | Longford | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H25 | Roscommon | Roscommon | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H26 | East Mayo | Mayo | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H27 | West Mayo | Mayo | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H28 | Sligo | Sligo | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H29 | Leitrim | Leitrim | Connacht | Republic of Ireland |
| H30 | Cavan | Cavan | Ulster | Republic of Ireland |
| H31 | Louth | Louth | Leinster | Republic of Ireland |
| H32 | Monaghan | Monaghan | Ulster | Republic of Ireland |
| H33 | Fermanagh | Fermanagh | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
| H34 | East Donegal | Donegal | Ulster | Republic of Ireland |
| H35 | West Donegal | Donegal | Ulster | Republic of Ireland |
| H36 | Tyrone | Tyrone | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
| H37 | Armagh | Armagh | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
| H38 | Down | Down | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
| H39 | Antrim | Antrim | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
| H40 | Londonderry | Londonderry | Ulster | Northern Ireland |
* 1 2 3 County Waterford (Munster) north of the River Suir (i.e. Kilculliheen) is in Kilkenny vice-county (Leinster)
* 1 2 The North and South Tipperary vice-counties are divided by the Dublin–Cork railway line and do not correspond to the county's North and South ridings.
* 1 2 County Limerick north-west of the River Shannon (i.e. the North Liberties) is in Clare vice-county
* 1 2 3 The Aran Islands (County Galway, Connacht) are in Clare vice-county (Munster)
* 1 2 3 4 The only 1899 transfer accepted by Praeger is the land east of Lough Derg transferred from Galway (Connacht) to Clare (Munster).
* 1 2 Praeger's 1933 map inconsistently includes in West Mayo an area transferred from Galway to Mayo under the 1898 act; his 1901 map has it in West Galway.
* 1 2 3 The area of County Londonderry (Northern Ireland) west of the River Foyle is in East Donegal vice-county (Republic of Ireland).