What's Scotland's worst town to live in......?

[Cruyff]

2 hours ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

I think it's a Borders thing, as I've heard the same for Peebles & Innerleithen.

 

 

 

They don't like change as it's 'aye been'.

Basically.

 

"I'd rather be a long ghost in Hawick than a resident I'm Gala" one old woman once said.

 

Probably the most backward place in Scotland. 

[muldoon74]

11 hours ago, millerjames398 said:

My mate used to deliver barrs juice to the shops in the plains, and said it was the only place his driver took a spare crate of irn bru, and another crate with empty bottles, to appease the large group of bangers that hung around there from morning to night 😂

I deliver to both shops in plains, one up the top and the one on the main Street..

 

Top one I get asked for milk almost every time by the toothless topless jakey twats that hang around, as you say pretty much from morning till night.  I park up on the kerb with my doors right beside the delivery entrance.

 

Bottom one the shopkeeper helps me get the delivery in so it lessens the time for it to be nicked. 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

3 hours ago, Cruyff said:

Basically.

 

"I'd rather be a long ghost in Hawick than a resident I'm Gala" one old woman once said.

 

Probably the most backward place in Scotland. 

 

Oh, there's a few places in the Borders which could vie for that title.

 

[Jamstomorrow]

39 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Oh, there's a few places in the Borders which could vie for that title.

 

Oh do tell us where and why you think that.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Jamstomorrow said:

Oh do tell us where and why you think that.

 

Hawick & Gala as has been mentioned, Selkirk is a bit of a dump, Peebles is jacky heaven and as for Walkerburn.....well have you seen the state of that place nowadays, used to be a nice wee village (when I lived there).

 

Lack of jobs and opportunities for the young, no wonder most of the youngsters leave and move elsewhere for work, and all that is taking a huge toll on all the towns/villages, they are all becoming commuter towns now, it's the main reason most are still alive, without people moving out of the central belt, some of the towns would be even worse now, then they are.

 

All just imo of course.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Jambo-Jimbo

[Auld Reekin']

12 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Hawick & Gala as has been mentioned, Selkirk is a bit of a dump, Peebles is jacky heaven and as for Walkerburn.....well have you seen the state of that place nowadays, used to be a nice wee village (when I lived there).

 

Lack of jobs and opportunities for the young, no wonder most of the youngsters leave and move elsewhere for work, and all that is taking a huge toll on all the towns/villages, they are all becoming commuter towns now, it's the main reason most are still alive, without people moving out of the central belt, some of the towns would be even worse now, then they are.

 

All just imo of course.

 

Kelso's really quite pleasant however.   

 

 

 

(The Bridge Inn in Peebles is a great pub!)

Edited January 7, 2022 by Auld Reekin'

[Savage Vince]

17 hours ago, millerjames398 said:

My mate used to deliver barrs juice to the shops in the plains, and said it was the only place his driver took a spare crate of irn bru, and another crate with empty bottles, to appease the large group of bangers that hung around there from morning to night 😂

 

I used to work with a guy from Plains. He wasn't right in the head. He walked and spoke like a cowboy and would chew sticks. I actually thought Plains was a made up place for the first 3 months that I knew him. 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

4 minutes ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

Kelso's really quite pleasant however.   

 

 

 

(The Bridge Inn in Peebles is a great pub!)

 

Melrose looks alright as well.

 

I think the last time I was in the Bridge Inn, the police station was still over the road, and that wasn't yesterday.

[Jamstomorrow]

21 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Hawick & Gala as has been mentioned, Selkirk is a bit of a dump, Peebles is jacky heaven and as for Walkerburn.....well have you seen the state of that place nowadays, used to be a nice wee village (when I lived there).

 

Lack of jobs and opportunities for the young, no wonder most of the youngsters leave and move elsewhere for work, and all that is taking a huge toll on all the towns/villages, they are all becoming commuter towns now, it's the main reason most are still alive, without people moving out of the central belt, some of the towns would be even worse now, then they are.

 

All just imo of course.

All the towns you mentioned were once thriving textile towns.   Sadly no longer.  Living in Walkerburn must have been akin to being buried alive!

[moshy]

On 06/01/2022 at 15:57, Tazio said:

Not surprisingly most of the true shiteholes are in Lanarkshire. I remember working for a week in Coatbridge in the 80’s and that was an eye opener. At the end of the first day we checked into our hotel and asked the person at the front desk if there was anywhere decent to grab some food. Amazingly there wasn’t a single place to eat out in the town. We ended up driving into Glasgow every night instead. Larkhall is a pit as well, everything you expect it to be. 
Moving further north Alness is a dump as well, full of people who moved north for rig work and then stayed when the work dried up. 

Alness isn't a dump ffs, and people moved north to work in the smelter in Invergordon then stayed when that closed.

[Jambo_jim2001]

20 hours ago, Ominous said:

Typical Drongan house, absolute dump of a place.

Just a couple of houses? There's streets like that where I stay,,even the ice cream van plays the sash😳

[Jambo-Jimbo]

33 minutes ago, Jamstomorrow said:

All the towns you mentioned were once thriving textile towns.   Sadly no longer.  Living in Walkerburn must have been akin to being buried alive!

 

Indeed, that's why there isn't any jobs now and as a consequence these towns have all went downhill.

 

I'll have you know Walkerburn used to be a thriving wee place, with a Co-op with a bakery (then a small mill, now houses), a butchers (top of Hall St. now a house), post office (still there), sweet shop (Mrs. Cook owned that, I liked her, used to give me a big bag of sweets at Christmas time), childrens clothes/wool shop, a general store (half-way down Hall Street, later became the co-op, a large mill (until it burnt down in the mid 70's, still remember that well, we were playing in the Tweed when we seen the flames, helped to evacuate some of the houses at the back of the mill) and 3 pubs (the HB Club, George Hotel & the Tweed Valley Hotel had a bar down stairs) the George was where I had my first pint, well underage, barman knew it as well, only the HB Club is still open.  And lets not forget the cast iron Victorian street urinal, one of only a few left in Scotland, used that many a time when I was a lad, still in use I think.

 

The Burn was alright, back in the day.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Jambo-Jimbo

[Auld Reekin']

47 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Melrose looks alright as well.

 

I think the last time I was in the Bridge Inn, the police station was still over the road, and that wasn't yesterday.

 

Yep, Melrose and St. Boswells are probably the poshest and wealthiest of the Border towns. Coldstream too, right enough.

[Ominous]

13 minutes ago, Jambo_jim2001 said:

Just a couple of houses? There's streets like that where I stay,,even the ice cream van plays the sash😳

Oh there's a lot more than just they houses.

[Robbo-Jambo]

Used to work in Larkhall back in the day.

 

Really strange, scary place with blue, white and red park railings.

 

Paul McStay was the big player at the time but was never seen out and about in the town.

 

Probably would have got one of the afore mentioned park railings shoved up his jacksie.

 

Never had any bother there when told folk I was a Hearts fan !!!! 😄. Was back in late seventies though.

[Jambo_jim2001]

21 minutes ago, Ominous said:

Oh there's a lot more than just they houses.

😂

[Samuel Camazzola]

1 hour ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

Kelso's really quite pleasant however.   

 

 

 

(The Bridge Inn in Peebles is a great pub!)

Wasn't it Kelso which received a bit of exposure a couple of years ago due to the local girl and the guy who was a colleague lecturer? 

 

😳

[Serj Tankian]

Gala was good . The epicentre of all the dumps nearby . 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Serj Tankian

[Serj Tankian]

8 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Wasn't it Kelso which received a bit of exposure a couple of years ago due to the local girl and the guy who was a colleague lecturer? 

 

😳

Schorcha or something like that 

[Samuel Camazzola]

9 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Wasn't it Kelso which received a bit of exposure a couple of years ago due to the local girl and the guy who was a colleague lecturer? 

 

😳

Predictive text - college. 

[Victorian]

31 minutes ago, Robbo-Jambo said:

Used to work in Larkhall back in the day.

 

Really strange, scary place with blue, white and red park railings.

 

Paul McStay was the big player at the time but was never seen out and about in the town.

 

Probably would have got one of the afore mentioned park railings shoved up his jacksie.

 

Never had any bother there when told folk I was a Hearts fan !!!! 😄. Was back in late seventies though.

 

I've got relatives in Larkhall.  Needless to say they're of 'ra peepul'.

[Robbo-Jambo]

2 minutes ago, Victorian said:

 

I've got relatives in Larkhall.  Needless to say they're of 'ra peepul'.

Surprised they leave the grass green in Larkhall tbh 😏

[tedarmy]

24 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Wasn't it Kelso which received a bit of exposure a couple of years ago due to the local girl and the guy who was a colleague lecturer? 

 

😳

hawick

[Auld Reekin']

1 minute ago, tedarmy said:

hawick

 

 

 

[Ally Bee]

21 hours ago, Ominous said:

Typical Drongan house, absolute dump of a place.

 

Mrs Bee is from Drongan and she says a nice chap called Mental Kelly lived in that house. Decent village until the local mine shut then became a hell hole. Some new houses now so place has improved. Mad dog Adair hid out there for a while. 

[Locky]

2 hours ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Hawick & Gala as has been mentioned, Selkirk is a bit of a dump, Peebles is jacky heaven and as for Walkerburn.....well have you seen the state of that place nowadays, used to be a nice wee village (when I lived there).

 

Lack of jobs and opportunities for the young, no wonder most of the youngsters leave and move elsewhere for work, and all that is taking a huge toll on all the towns/villages, they are all becoming commuter towns now, it's the main reason most are still alive, without people moving out of the central belt, some of the towns would be even worse now, then they are.

 

All just imo of course.

You're spot on tbh. The folk I went to high school with who live in the town all have lived fairly dull lives by the looks of it since we left school. Multiple kids to multiple partners, and not with any of them anymore. Never seem to go on holiday or anything like that. Just same old day in their cosy lives down there.

 

The ones who are doing better for themselves all live in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle etc. for University and work and seem to be far happier. No surprise.

[Locky]

On 06/01/2022 at 19:26, Cruyff said:

Hawick because it's that backward your watch turns back about 60 years when you enter the toon. I don't mind the place, I just don't like the people. 

You're not wrong. The people certainly didn't make it easy to move there. Took a while to fit in which I've never had a problem with anywhere else. Seemed to resent the fact I was from Edinburgh.

[Ominous]

2 minutes ago, Ally Bee said:

 

Mrs Bee is from Drongan and she says a nice chap called Mental Kelly lived in that house. Decent village until the local mine shut then became a hell hole. Some new houses now so place has improved. Mad dog Adair hid out there for a while. 

I work with a few lads from there nice enough blokes but they aren't half staunch, their highlight of the year is a week in Benidorm for the big orange walk that's held there😄. There are some nice houses been built there and more to go up so it is Definitely improving.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

54 minutes ago, Locky said:

You're spot on tbh. The folk I went to high school with who live in the town all have lived fairly dull lives by the looks of it since we left school. Multiple kids to multiple partners, and not with any of them anymore. Never seem to go on holiday or anything like that. Just same old day in their cosy lives down there.

 

The ones who are doing better for themselves all live in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle etc. for University and work and seem to be far happier. No surprise.

 

You are right, one of my daughters left Innerleithen when she was 16, joined the Navy and has never looked back, a couple of the girls she used to hang about with, well they still live in the town and have done feck all with their life.

 

48 minutes ago, Locky said:

You're not wrong. The people certainly didn't make it easy to move there. Took a while to fit in which I've never had a problem with anywhere else. Seemed to resent the fact I was from Edinburgh.

 

Didn't matter where you came from, it was because you weren't Hawick born & bred, you'd always be an outsider.

[Auld Reekin']

59 minutes ago, Ominous said:

I work with a few lads from there nice enough blokes but they aren't half staunch, their highlight of the year is a week in Benidorm for the big orange walk that's held there😄. There are some nice houses been built there and more to go up so it is Definitely improving.

 

And here they are:

 

[Cruyff]

1 hour ago, Locky said:

You're not wrong. The people certainly didn't make it easy to move there. Took a while to fit in which I've never had a problem with anywhere else. Seemed to resent the fact I was from Edinburgh.

Stayed there for 8 years. To fit in you need to be a tradesman, play rugby or be into their common riding nonsense. Fortunately I served my apprenticeship in the Borders as a Joiner so got to know all the "well kent" faces. 

But aye, everyone knows everyone or are related in some way and they like to know everyone's business and what they don't know they make up. 

It's rammed full of Rangers bigots and folk who think they are the bees knees because people know who they are. They live in a wee bubble, backwards as feck with no idea what the outside world is actually like outside their own wee town. 

[Savage Vince]

11 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

You are right, one of my daughters left Innerleithen when she was 16, joined the Navy and has never looked back, a couple of the girls she used to hang about with, well they still live in the town and have done feck all with their life.

 

Maybe they like living there. 

[Locky]

58 minutes ago, Cruyff said:

Stayed there for 8 years. To fit in you need to be a tradesman, play rugby or be into their common riding nonsense. Fortunately I served my apprenticeship in the Borders as a Joiner so got to know all the "well kent" faces. 

But aye, everyone knows everyone or are related in some way and they like to know everyone's business and what they don't know they make up. 

It's rammed full of Rangers bigots and folk who think they are the bees knees because people know who they are. They live in a wee bubble, backwards as feck with no idea what the outside world is actually like outside their own wee town. 

 

I had a fair few mates at high school but I could tell a lot of them low-key resented the fact that I always refused their offer to go train with the rugby team, and I never once got involved with anything to do with the common riding. **** them.

[millerjames398]

11 hours ago, muldoon74 said:

I deliver to both shops in plains, one up the top and the one on the main Street..

 

Top one I get asked for milk almost every time by the toothless topless jakey twats that hang around, as you say pretty much from morning till night.  I park up on the kerb with my doors right beside the delivery entrance.

 

Bottom one the shopkeeper helps me get the delivery in so it lessens the time for it to be nicked. 

That sounds about right😂, he said driver used to make him stand at the back of the van, just incase the freebies they'd been handed wasn't enough,  whilst he wheeled the crates in the shops, aged from 10 to 40 odds kickin a ball about, and gettin wrecked all day...a bit of a celtic area as well apparently, which probably gives them an extra 10 shithole points😂

[millerjames398]

5 hours ago, Savage Vince said:

 

I used to work with a guy from Plains. He wasn't right in the head. He walked and spoke like a cowboy and would chew sticks. I actually thought Plains was a made up place for the first 3 months that I knew him. 

😂😂😂

[millerjames398]

4 hours ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Wasn't it Kelso which received a bit of exposure a couple of years ago due to the local girl and the guy who was a colleague lecturer? 

 

😳

Kelso..the town of scat man john enthusiasts 🤢🤮😂

[Unknown user]

On 06/01/2022 at 23:04, Ominous said:

Typical Drongan house, absolute dump of a place.

That's just awful, you'd spew your ring daily seeing that.

 

[millerjames398]

4 hours ago, Robbo-Jambo said:

Surprised they leave the grass green in Larkhall tbh 😏

They probably enjoy, getting to trample over, big patches of the colour green😂🇱🇻

[Dagger Is Back]

On 06/01/2022 at 15:01, Jambo 4 Ever said:

Lanark 

 

in Edinburgh the likes of Niddrie, Pilton and sighthill are not pleasant and the people there are not ones you want to hang around either 

Nothing wrong with Sighthill!!

 

😡

[Samuel Camazzola]

5 hours ago, millerjames398 said:

Kelso..the town of scat man john enthusiasts 🤢🤮😂

😂

[Harry Potter]

On 06/01/2022 at 14:35, Locky said:

Hawick for me. By no means an out and out shithole, but a pretty shite place to live. I lived in Burnfoot (which I think was branded the worst place in Scotland to live when we first moved there) which actually is pretty rough, but the rest of the town is actually quite nice. Depends what you deem as 'worst'.

 

Lived there for 4 years and actually quite liked it, but far too isolated for my liking. 50 miles from Edinburgh via A roads, and not much closer to Carlisle. Despite Hawick being bigger than Gala, and further from Edinburgh, there really is **** all in the town to see or do, and what little there is mostly closes by 6pm. Not a lot of job opportunities either unless you're in constriction, agriculture or textile either.

 

Probably just have a pretty blinkered view as I've lived in the big city all my life, Hawick aside, but aye, a pretty dreary existence down there.

Had a great aunt in Hawick and my gran would take myself and my brother down there in the train, 

seemed to be a decent place with good shops and my aunt had a lovely house with huge garden, i was about 7 at the time.

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

Penicuik’s pretty shan like 

[Ally Bee]

13 hours ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Indeed, that's why there isn't any jobs now and as a consequence these towns have all went downhill.

 

I'll have you know Walkerburn used to be a thriving wee place, with a Co-op with a bakery (then a small mill, now houses), a butchers (top of Hall St. now a house), post office (still there), sweet shop (Mrs. Cook owned that, I liked her, used to give me a big bag of sweets at Christmas time), childrens clothes/wool shop, a general store (half-way down Hall Street, later became the co-op, a large mill (until it burnt down in the mid 70's, still remember that well, we were playing in the Tweed when we seen the flames, helped to evacuate some of the houses at the back of the mill) and 3 pubs (the HB Club, George Hotel & the Tweed Valley Hotel had a bar down stairs) the George was where I had my first pint, well underage, barman knew it as well, only the HB Club is still open.  And lets not forget the cast iron Victorian street urinal, one of only a few left in Scotland, used that many a time when I was a lad, still in use I think.

 

The Burn was alright, back in the day.

Do you remember the wee paper shop / store at the top of Hall Street? My folks ran that for a couple of years late 70’s as well as a grocers in Innerleithen. Supermarkets killed off a lot of shops like that. I remember Innerleithen used to have at least 3 butchers on the High Street, not sure if any are left.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

37 minutes ago, Ally Bee said:

Do you remember the wee paper shop / store at the top of Hall Street? My folks ran that for a couple of years late 70’s as well as a grocers in Innerleithen. Supermarkets killed off a lot of shops like that. I remember Innerleithen used to have at least 3 butchers on the High Street, not sure if any are left.

 

Indeed I do, had a paper round there in the mid 70's when Jim B had it, your folks must have taken over from Jim, it's now a house and you'd never know it used to be a shop.  It used to be a butcher's before Jim B converted it into a paper/general store.

 

Innerleithen used to have 4 butchers, 3 in the High Street.

George Mason (Best pies in the Borders, across from the bank, now the framing studio).

Mason Scott's (across the road from the junction of Chapel Street, now the Chinese Takeaway)

Adrian Keddie (across from the post office, only butcher left, now owned by Shaw's Fine Meats)

The fourth was the co-op's butcher up Chapel Street, in fact the Co-op also had a shoe shop and a furniture/homewares shop upstairs from the food shop, they also had a bakery, my dad was one of the bakers, there was also around the back of the Co-op a woman's hair salon as well.

[GinRummy]

2 hours ago, Lord BJ said:

If we’re honest the vast majority of Scotland is a shit hole. Driving through the central belt, I’m always amazed by how depressing much of Scotland and especially the town centres are. Granted weather probably plays a large part. 
 

I have some family in Harthill and Armadale. Harthill in particular is a hell hole that would benefit massively from knocking it down and starting again. 
 

I would probably plump for Plains, as suggested by another poster. It seemed to make Arnadale look like the city of culture. 
 

I think one of the major reasons for the depressing nature of most towns, is the absence of much real transport infrastructure and infrastructure in general. It results in many of these places being isolated that it becomes the land time forgot. 

Many of these towns would benefit massively from becoming more connected. 

 

There was a tv show on BBC Scotland about Shotts and poor transport links was something the locals felt was holding the town back

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00118sf

[Footballfirst]

Most of the "worst" towns have suffered as a result of losing major industries in the last 40 years and consequently their retail and commercial centres have become run down.

 

You don't need to look too far for town centres that need regeneration.  Princes Street is an example where there are maybe a dozen empty shops and a few that now sell tartan tat. It's not a good look. St James' Quarter is a step forward, but it is Princes Street that is the advert for the city.

 

I have been to most of the football grounds in the lower leagues so I have visited many towns in the central belt that have been mentioned by other posters. The towns that have prospered are those that have become commuter towns for the major cities. That requires new housing stock and transport links. I would include Bathgate and Armadale among those that have turned the corner.  However many of the smaller towns nearby have missed out on any investment.

 

The towns I like, generally have good housing. Many of them were traditional market towns in relatively prosperous farming areas, e.g. Haddington, Peebles or Cupar 

 

 

 

  

Edited January 8, 2022 by Footballfirst

[Ominous]

13 hours ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

And here they are:

 

Haha. I would rather stand and have a pint with them than Ra peepul.

[Auld Reekin']

6 minutes ago, Ominous said:

Haha. I would rather stand and have a pint with them than Ra peepul.

 

[Ribble]

17 hours ago, moshy said:

Alness isn't a dump ffs, and people moved north to work in the smelter in Invergordon then stayed when that closed.

It really is, Mrs Ribbles cousins side of the family live up there and it’s a riot of a place, her cousin is regularly in fights (either with neighbours or just in the pub), almost everyone on the side of the family has multiple kids to different folk and doubt any of them reached the legal age to drink before being a parent. Rare for any of them to actually have a job.

[A Boy Named Crow]

I never get homesick for Scotland, not since I swapped London for Sydney, but if it ever creeps up on me, I'll be on this thread like a shot, grim reading 😂