Former Scottish county, lying north west of the city of
Glasgow, and north of
Renfrewshire across the lower reaches of the river Clyde. The south of the county contained the towns of
Dumbarton,
Alexandria,
Clydebank and
Helensburgh, while the north stretched up the west bank of
Loch Lomond. An isolated part of the county was located to the north east of
Glasgow.
The county was, and still is, sometimes referred to as Dumbartonshire through confusion with the name of the chief town.
The county was broken up into districts and absorbed into Strathclyde region in 1974. Parts of the two districts of Dumbarton and Clydebank were later, in 1996, to form the area of West Dunbartonshire. East Dunbartonshire now stretches across the north of the Glasgow suburbs, and the remaining part of the former county, Loch Lomond-side is now part of Argyll and Bute.