Crap Towns / Highland / Wick
Wick
33/100Crap Score
Known as Week. Thurso calls them Dirty Weekers.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 33. 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
Wick. The street with one door.
Once the herring capital of Europe. Now it's mostly known for a street with one door on it.
Wick was the busiest herring port in Europe once, and they built Pulteneytown for the boats. The herring went. What's left is a High Street of empty shops and the shortest street in the world, Ebenezer Place, which has one door. It's the only thing most people have heard of.
The locals don't sit about, mind. They report things. 262 problems went in on FixMyStreet in a year, nearly nineteen times the typical Scottish town's rate, 154 of them potholes, plus a fair few cars somebody just left at the side of the road. The last bus goes at 5.38pm and there's none on a Sunday, so you can see why folk hang on to a car, even a dead one.
Thurso calls them the Dirty Weekers. Wick says it was busy workers once. Thurso isn't buying it.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Wick's 80 for rain means it's crapper than 80% of towns.
- Rain80/100157 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene79/10010.2% told to improve, of the 59 food businesses inspected
- Broadband76/1000.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 36.7% across the Highland council area
- Sewage spills68/100
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Criminal damage and arson45/1006.6 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Deliberate fires35/10013.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour15/1004.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions3/1000.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution0/1001.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 3.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inverness | 66 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Wick | 33 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Wick by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 35.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 34% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 154 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 223 per 10,000 people, 39.8x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 2 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 14.5 per 100,000 people, 4.3x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 5.8 per 10,000 people, 3.6x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 5.38pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier 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%
- 24.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,314 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 14% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Highland council
- £1,634 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £19 less than the Scottish average
- 43% of Highland council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 19% higher than Scotland's 36%
- 99 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 42.1 per 100,000 residents, 21% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 95.3% 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
Wick 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.