Page "Town" Paragraph 6

In Old English and Early and Middle Scots, the word ton, toun, etc.

could refer to kinds of settlements as diverse as agricultural estates and holdings, partly picking up the Norse sense ( as in the Scots word fermtoun ) at one end of the scale, to fortified municipality at the other.

If there was any distinction between toun ( fortified municipality ) and burgh ( unfortified municipality ) as claimed by some, it did not last in practice as burghs and touns developed.

For example " Edina Burgh " or " Edinburgh " ( called a city today ) was built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive wall.