Scotland’s most dismal towns – as chosen by the Carbuncle awards After 17 years of celebrating Scotland’s “most dismal towns” the Carbuncle Awards is set to make way for a new […]

After 17 years of celebrating Scotland’s “most dismal towns” the Carbuncle Awards is set to make way for a new set of “positive” accolades.

Organised by architecture magazine Urban Realm, the Carbuncle Awards ruthlessly labelled post-industrial Scottish towns with titles of dishonour such as the ‘Plook on the Plinth’ award – while slating local authorities for their negligence and incompetence in the process.

These are the places that held the unenviable title of ‘Scotland’s most dismal town’.

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Airdrie (2000): ‘The revamp of Airdrie’s paving has served to emphasise the desolate nature of the street’

Airdrie picked up the first Plook on the Plinth award in 2000 with 9 out of 10 residents of the North Lanarkshire town interviewed by Urban Realm agreeing that their hometown was worthy of the label of Scotland’s most dismal town.

The magazine was particularly critical of the town’s sheriff court and “desolate” high street.

“The sheriff court is clad in honey-coloured panels and block work, materials that would not look out of place cladding a supermarket,” the report said.

“The revamp of Airdrie’s paving, between the old redundant Safeway building and the 1970s DSS offices, has served to emphasise the desolate nature of the street.”

Cumbernauld (2001 and 2005): ‘Kabul of the North’

Cumbernauld is the only Scottish town to be labelled “Scotland’s most dismal town” twice.

The town centre was described as “the Kabul of the North” in 2001, with particular derision reserved for the town’s shopping centre, described as “a rabbit warren on stilts”.

Four years later when the town scooped the award for a second time, a spokesperson for the panel noted that if anything the town had declined further still.

“If anything, the addition of a new Tesco’s, which hasn’t been integrated into the existing street plan, has made the town worse.”

Coatbridge (2007): ‘A new clock tower, which looks as if it was designed on the back of a beer mat’

Coatbridge took the crown from fellow North Lanarkshire town Cumbernauld in 2007.

Urban Realm didn’t hold back in their criticism of the town.

“If you make it to the main street, Coatbridge’s Quadrant shopping centre looks like it was lifted directly from the set of Camberwick Green.

“A new clock tower, which looks as if it was designed on the back of a beer mat, marks the town centre, a throwaway gesture compounded by the addition of some ill-conceived public art-cum street furniture.”

Glenrothes (2009): ‘A drab shopping mall, surrounded by depressing car parks’

Fife town Glenrothes picked up the award in 2009, much to the bemusement to locals.

“There is nothing wrong with the town itself,” Gordon Young, of the Prospect and the Architecture Scotland website said at the time. “But the people who live there are being badly let down by its depressing town centre, which could and should be better.

“The place is crying out for more civic space. Instead, what is offered is a drab shopping mall, surrounded by depressing car parks.”

Denny (2010): ‘Beirut on a bad day’

Despite initially awarding John O’ Groats the award, Urban Realm U-turned on their decision when residents of Denny pleaded for the ‘Plook on the Plinth’.

One local described Denny to the BBC as “Beirut on a bad day. It’s a blot on the landscape.”

Urban Realm themselves described Denny as being “lumbered with a giant mouldering Battenberg cake of a town centre”.

Linwood (2011): ‘Scotland’s first and worst shopping centre’

Renfrewshire town Linwood was named most dismal town award in 2011, and Urban Realm Editor John Glenday encouraged locals to view the award as a force for change:

“Scotland’s first shopping centre is also its worst, leaving Linwood as a town without a heart – but it isn’t a lost cause.

“It could be turned around and turned around quite quickly. To do so however requires action, it is in this spirit as a catalyst for change that Linwood has been awarded the Carbuncle award.”

New Cumnock (2013): ‘One step forward, two steps back’

After losing out to Glenrothes in 2009, East Ayrshire town New Cumnock deservedly won the award in 2013.

In the four intervening years, New Cumnock authorities made crucial planning mistakes which sealed its victory, according to Urban Realm.

“The town has taken one step forward and two steps back with the completion of an impressive new primary school overshadowed by the threatened closure of its town hall and sell-off of the Arthur Memorial church – on its 100th anniversary no less.

“These losses have been compounded by the continued haemorrhaging of shops on the High Street and a general absence of maintenance on derelict properties.”

Aberdeen (2015): ‘The poor relation of the Scottish cities’

Scotland’s third largest city became the highest profile winner of the most dismal town award in 2015.

Urban Realm Editor John Glenday cited a liberal attitude towards planning that has cost the city much of its historical character.

“Sadly, there has been little of note built in the modern era to do justice to this legacy with durability and sustainability sacrificed in favour of flimsy, throwaway buildings that foster an ‘anything goes’ attitude.

“Despite its enviable financial clout and rich heritage legacy it has become the poor relation of the Scottish cities.

“The time to turn things around is now, in a few years’ time it may well be too late.”