What are Vice Counties?

In Britain, the recording of species is generally organised in accordance with the system of Vice-counties, a system of division of Britain and Ireland into geographical units based upon traditional counties. They are sometimes called Watsonian vice-counties as they were introduced for Great Britain, its offshore islands, and the Isle of Man, by Hewett Cottrell Watson who first used them in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852.

Large traditional counties were split into several Vice-counties to produce units of approximately equal size across the country. Thus large counties such as Devon and Lincolnshire each comprise two Vice-counties, whereas smaller counties such as Bedfordshire and Monmouthshire are each single Vice-counties. Yorkshire contains five Vice-counties and the modern county of Highland fully encompasses six Vice-counties and parts of another three.

Vice-counties are still used by recorders because they provide historical stability. The borders of Vice-counties do not change, whereas those of political counties have changed dramatically and continue to do so. Species recorders will typically work to Vice-county boundaries.

How do you find out which Vice-county you are recording in?

The Botanical Society of the British Isles has an online tool that will assign a grid reference to a Vice-county, click here

The Biological Records Centre website has a useful feature that will produce a list of Ordnance Survey grid squares in each Vice-county, click here

Great Britain
VC Vice county
1 West Cornwall with Scilly
2 East Cornwall
3 South Devon
4 North Devon
5 South Somerset
6 North Somerset
7 North Wiltshire
8 South Wiltshire
9 Dorset
10 Isle of Wight
11 South Hampshire
12 North Hampshire
13 West Sussex
14 East Sussex
15 East Kent
16 West Kent
17 Surrey
18 South Essex
19 North Essex
20 Hertfordshire
21 Middlesex
22 Berkshire
23 Oxfordshire
24 Buckinghamshire
25 East Suffolk
26 West Suffolk
27 East Norfolk
28 West Norfolk
29 Cambridgeshire
30 Bedfordshire
31 Huntingdonshire
32 Northamptonshire
33 East Gloucestershire
34 West Gloucestershire
35 Monmouthshire
36 Herefordshire
37 Worcestershire
38 Warwickshire
39 Staffordshire
40 Shropshire
41 Glamorganshire
42 Breconshire
43 Radnorshire
44 Carmarthenshire
45 Pembrokeshire
46 Cardiganshire
47 Montgomeryshire
48 Merionethshire
49 Caernarvonshire
50 Denbighshire
51 Flintshire
52 Anglesey
53 South Lincolnshire
54 North Lincolnshire
55 Leicestershire (with Rutland)
56 Nottinghamshire
57 Derbyshire
58 Cheshire
59 South Lancashire
60 West Lancashire
61 South-east Yorkshire
62 North-east Yorkshire
63 South-west Yorkshire
64 Mid-west Yorkshire
65 North-west Yorkshire
66 County Durham
67 South Northumberland
68 North Northumberland
69 Westmorland (with Furness)
70 Cumberland
71 Isle of Man
72 Dumfriesshire
73 Kirkcudbrightshire
74 Wigtownshire
75 Ayrshire
76 Renfrewshire
77 Lanarkshire
78 Peebleshire
79 Selkirkshire
80 Roxburghshire
81 Berwickshire
82 East Lothian
83 Midlothian
84 West Lothian
85 Fifeshire
86 Stirlingshire
87 West Perthshire
88 Mid Perthshire
89 East Perthshire
90 Angus
91 Kincardineshire
92 South Aberdeenshire
93 North Aberdeenshire
94 Banffshire
95 Moray
96 East Inverness-shire
97 West Inverness-shire
98 Argyllshire
99 Dunbartonshire
100 Clyde Isles
101 Kintyre
102 South Ebudes
103 Mid Ebudes
104 North Ebudes
105 West Ross & Cromarty
106 East Ross & Cromarty
107 East Sutherland
108 West Sutherland
109 Caithness
110 Outer Hebrides
111 Orkney
112 Shetland