Crap Towns / Angus / Kirriemuir
Kirriemuir
42/100Crap Score
Known as the Wee Red Toon.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 42. 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
Pretty red town. Shame about the drains.
Red sandstone streets, a Peter Pan statue in the square and storm overflows that wouldn't stop.
Kirrie is the Wee Red Toon, all red sandstone and narrow streets, with a Peter Pan statue and a Neverland play park, because a boy who never grew up is the most exciting thing ever to come out of it. Nobody gets up to much. Hardly anybody nicks from the shops and the air's as clean as you'll get.
Under the pretty bits it's another story. From 2023 to 2025 the storm overflows round Kirrie spilled for more than twenty times as long, per head, as the typical town's. It's come down a lot since. It needed to. And they shut the recycling centre, so whatever you can't flush, you're driving somewhere else with.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Kirriemuir's 99 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Sewage spills99/1006,207 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband92/10014.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 32.7% across the Angus council area
- Food hygiene68/1008.1% told to improve, of the 37 food businesses inspected
- Rain67/100140 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Serious road collisions45/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour15/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Deliberate fires10/1006.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson5/1003.3 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Air pollution0/1002.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arbroath | 60 |
| – | Kirriemuir | 42 |
| 2 | Montrose | 41 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.3 | Forfar | 37 |
| 4 | Carnoustie | 19 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Kirriemuir by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 32.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 41% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 11 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 18.3 per 10,000 people, 3.3x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 2 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.18am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 33.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,412 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Angus council
- £1,599 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £54 less than the Scottish average
- 33% of Angus council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 8% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 28 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Better: 24.5 per 100,000 residents, 29% lower than Scotland's 34.7
- 96.0% 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
Kirriemuir 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.