Crap Towns / Fife / Burntisland
Burntisland
16/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 16. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Burntisland. The clue's in the name.
A sandy beach, a summer fair on the Links and a name everybody splits in the wrong place.
Burntisland has a sandy beach, the Links, the Binn up behind it and a summer fair that takes over the place for weeks. It's nice. Annoyingly nice, apart from the litter the day-trippers leave, the dog shite, and the fence round the harbour that stopped a walk folk had been doing for years.
Somebody's taking the name seriously. The deliberate fires doubled in two years, mostly bins. Down the coast, the harbour beach at Kinghorn was rated Poor for bathing, which Burntisland will tell you is Kinghorn's problem.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Burntisland's 70 for rain means it's crapper than 70% of towns.
- Rain70/100144 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires57/10024.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband55/1005.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.9% across the Fife council area
- Food hygiene55/1005.9% told to improve, of the 51 food businesses inspected
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Criminal damage and arson45/1006.6 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Anti-social behaviour26/1006.3 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions8/1000.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills5/1000.9 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Air pollution4/1004.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirkcaldy | 76 |
| 2 | Cowdenbeath | 62 |
| 3 | Methil | 53 |
| 4 | Glenrothes | 52 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Rosyth | 30 |
| 6 | Leven | 28 |
| 7 | Dunfermline | 18 |
| – | Burntisland | 16 |
| 8 | St Andrews | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Burntisland by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 48.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 12% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 0 of 3 bathing waters here or within 2 km rated Excellent in 2025; 1 rated Poor
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 banking hub opened here
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 2x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.49am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 1.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 88% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,497 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Fife council
- £1,574 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £79 less than the Scottish average
- 32% of Fife council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 11% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 127 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, 2 upheld About the same: 34.1 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.1% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Burntisland against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.