Crap Towns / Aberdeenshire / Fraserburgh
Fraserburgh
35/100Crap Score
Known as the Broch. Locals are Brochers.
641st crappest of 984 towns, and 2nd 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
Got something to say about Fraserburgh? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
At least it's not Peterhead.
A fishing port on the corner of Scotland, with a lighthouse museum, a lot of bookies and the Blue Toon down the road.
Fraserburgh, the Broch to anyone from there, is a working fishing port stuck out on the corner of Scotland, and it's got the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, which is the main reason anyone drives up. Once you've seen the lighthouse, that's you.
Crime runs 30% above the typical Scottish town's, and the drugs figures are way up there. The bookies come in at more than three times the typical town's rate, so there's money going somewhere. They regenerated the town centre and it still looks like it's waiting for the regeneration.
The Brochers and Peterhead have been slagging each other off for generations. Peterhead's crapper. Not by much.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Fraserburgh's 99 for broadband means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Broadband99/10033.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 51.5% across the Aberdeenshire council area
- Food hygiene76/1008.7% told to improve, of the 104 food businesses inspected
- Rain74/100150 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson65/1008.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Sewage spills31/10098.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Anti-social behaviour26/1006.3 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Deliberate fires21/1009.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions16/1001.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution0/1003.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
| 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.
Fraserburgh by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 70.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 30% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 173 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 134 per 10,000 people, 23.9x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
- 1 of 2 bathing waters here or within 2 km rated Excellent in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 6 hairdressers, 3 bookmakers, 2 banks on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 23.5% of takeaways inspected told to improve (4 of 17) Worse: 2.6x the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.3 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.42am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 9.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 39% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,398 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 9% 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
Fraserburgh 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.