The localities are listed alphabetically within each county: the counties are arranged topographically.

The work appears to have been compiled from the map of Scotland by John Ainslie which was published in 1789 (Adv.MS.20.1.5, folio 94): the list of place-names in Norway is taken from Pontoppidan`s map of 1781. It is in a number of unidentified hands, with numerous deletions and alterations throughout. It is not known for whom it was compiled: it may have been for George Chalmers in connexion with his ‘Caledonia’, the first volume of which was published in 1808. It seems likely that the work was compiled between about 1794, the watermark of some of the leaves, and 1801, the watermark of the endpapers, presumably when the work was bound. Single leaves have been cut out after Adv.MSS.20.1.1, folio 107 and 20.1.2, folio 15; small bifolia have been added at Adv.MSS.20.1.4, folios 193-194, 197-198 and 20.1.5, folios 61-62.