Crap Towns / Aberdeenshire / Ellon
Ellon
6/100Crap Score
922nd crappest of 984 towns, and 5th in Aberdeenshire. 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
Ellon. Nothing happened. Again.
A tidy wee town on the Ythan where the most exciting thing in years was the bank shutting.
Ellon sits on the Ythan with its old bridge and its castle gardens, done up by volunteers, and it's very pleased with itself. There wasn't one serious crash on its roads from 2021 to 2025, and the anti-social lot barely bother. The big excitement is the craft brewery on the edge of town, so at least there's something to drink while nothing happens.
Bank of Scotland and Virgin Money both shut up shop, and LINK's been round to look at the cash machine too, so now the locals moan about getting money out. That's the nearest Ellon gets to a crisis.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ellon's 98 for broadband means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Broadband98/10024.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 51.5% across the Aberdeenshire council area
- Rain71/100146 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene57/1006.5% told to improve, of the 46 food businesses inspected
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Sewage spills21/10045.7 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires6/1005.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson3/1003.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Anti-social behaviour2/1002.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Air pollution0/1002.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions0/1000.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peterhead | 50 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Fraserburgh | 35 |
| 3 | Inverurie | 21 |
| 4 | Stonehaven | 14 |
| 5 | Ellon | 6 |
| 6 | Westhill | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Ellon by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 24.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 54% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 167 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 165 per 10,000 people, 29.5x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 2 banks on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 19.8 per 100,000 people, 5.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 4.0 per 10,000 people, 2.5x 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
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 4.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 69% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,354 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 12% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Aberdeenshire council
- £1,686 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £33 more than the Scottish average
- 27% of Aberdeenshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 25% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 88 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld About the same: 33.4 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.7% 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
Ellon 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.