Worst Town/area In Scotland

[Unleash The Nade]

All part of what I refer to as The Ringpiece of Despair:

Fixed that for you

A wee bit more accurate now

[Hedgecutter]

Anywhere there has been some sort of industry requiring bodies to operate factories or whatever will have the same problem when production ceases. These places sprung up off the back of people needing to live near where they worked, when the work stopped they remained.

So we'll be expecting Broxburn to be making this list in a few years then.

Edit: Already been mentioned I see. Get ready for it to win promotion into the Premier League of shite places pretty soon then.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Hedgecutter

[smpar]

Sorry Hedgecutter, I've never heard this "circle of despair." But you're right, the places in said circle are fucking horrific, Ballingry being the worst.

I think we cycled through some serious contenders for this title on Sunday.

Ballingry,Lochore,Crosshill,Lochgelly,Cowdenbeath.

Its the first time half the fuckers there had seen wheels!

Ballingry, Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath are all really shitty places, but not the worst in Scotland.

[mattydfc]

Dundee is wonderful. I'm glad it's not been voted much in this topic.

YLFR

[Anthony Fitzgerald]

Fraserburgh, Stranraer, Holytown. Agree that Dunbeth seems to be surprisingly pleasant especially as its part of Coatbridge. Worst area in Falkirk is difficult, personally have to go for Langlees. Despite the new houses, it's still a hole. Special mention to Hallglen and Westquarter.

[Hedgecutter]

Sorry Hedgecutter, I've never heard this "circle of despair."

Hardly surprising seeing as I coined the phrase just five minutes ago.

[Hedgecutter]

Fraserburgh, Stranraer, Holytown. Agree that Dunbeth seems to be surprisingly pleasant especially as its part of Coatbridge. Worst area in Falkirk is difficult, personally have to go for Langlees. Despite the new houses, it's still a hole. Special mention to Hallglen and Westquarter.

Fraserburgh isn't actually that bad on the eye imo (granite building don't fall into disrepair that easily) and I think it gets more of a bad press than it deserves. However, it's not called the North East's drug capital for nothing with the fishing industry going down the pan so it would have to be on social factors alone.

It might actually be worth our while howking coal again as coal use has increased massively in the EU in the past couple of years and they are importing a lot of it from the US where their use of coal has fallen sharply since they discovered shale gas. As shale gas is a big no no in these parts then coal will become viable again as gas and oil gets dearer and dearer. Theres enough coal in the Ayrshire coalfield alone to last another 300 years. Whether the greenies would let us use it or not or whether the HSE would let us dig it out is another story of course.

As far as I'm aware, this is a very real possibility in the near future. To the best of my knowledge, over 90% of Scotland's original coal supply is still in place but it's just a matter of getting down there economically at the moment, the last deep one at Longannet closing because of flooding and costing too much to fix. Our stuff's pretty top notch stuff too yet we basically import shite.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Hedgecutter

[DAFC]

Dunfermline town centre is horrific atm.

Tesco have a huge site that has been put on hold for months and the large textile plant burned down and is derelict.

It's really depressing to look at and is the one thing people see when driving through the town from any direction.

How Tesco got away with this when they are building other new stores is a joke, the council should step in.

[smpar]

Dunfermline town centre is horrific atm.

Tesco have a huge site that has been put on hold for months and the large textile plant burned down and is derelict.

It's really depressing to look at and is the one thing people see when driving through the town from any direction.

How Tesco got away with this when they are building other new stores is a joke, the council should step in.

Is it not just on hold because there's been a lot of construction for the new Carnegie centre and the roadworks?

[Hedgecutter]

Dunfermline town centre is horrific atm.

Tesco have a huge site that has been put on hold for months and the large textile plant burned down and is derelict.

It's really depressing to look at and is the one thing people see when driving through the town from any direction.

How Tesco got away with this when they are building other new stores is a joke, the council should step in.

Was that the one across the road from the Carnegie Centre? Might be a blessing in disguise really if they have to demolish it. The old giant Coopy thing sat towards the bottom of the High St for donkeys years until they were forced to build the new bus station.

Also, where exactly is this new Tesco site? Struggling to think where they'd put it.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Hedgecutter

[TheBeither]

Feegie Park, Paisley.

Just avoid at all costs, unless you want to be chased by neds armed with axes, meat clevers and fence posts. I may or may not have been on the receiving end of the above.

*shudder*

Greenock

Being a St Mirren fan, it's fairly likely that I dislike Greenock, but it really is a dump. Also got shot at whilst playing golf on the 8th hole.

Seem to remember there was a guy named only as 'Cat Man' who lived in a drainpipe and ate rats. Only in Greenock.

Mentions for Auchinleck, Cumnock and New Cumnock also.

[Reynard]

Fraserburgh isn't actually that bad on the eye imo (granite building don't fall into disrepair that easily) and I think it gets more of a bad press than it deserves. However, it's not called the North East's drug capital for nothing with the fishing industry going down the pan so it would have to be on social factors alone.

As far as I'm aware, this is a very real possibility in the near future. To the best of my knowledge, over 90% of Scotland's original coal supply is still in place but it's just a matter of getting down there economically at the moment, the last deep one at Longannet closing because of flooding and costing too much to fix. Our stuff's pretty top notch stuff too yet we basically import shite.

My old bosses faither was a geologist with the NCB he was well aware of what was down there, how easy or not it was to get it out and the quality of it. He worked at Killoch/Barony until it shut and he was one of the ones telling the NCB they had sunk Killoch in the wrong place, they effectively cut themselves off from a mass of coal thanks to a huge sandstone plug in the Mauchline basin. Snadstone under pressure is one of the toughest rocks to drill through apparently. They wasted millions of poinds worth of equipment trying to get through the stuff to reach the coal and eventually they joined the two pits underground. The coal down there is apprently the cleanest burning , highest grade stuff its possible to get but until it becomes economically viable again then it will stay down there. They are doing plenty of opencast work in Ayrshire just now but they are literally scratching the surface and are taking the poorer quality easy to get stuff first.

Coal is becoming viable again thanks to the green policies which are pricing other fuels out the market. Its almost inevitable that coal will be a huge player again. Scotland and the UK in general is fortunate that it still has so much stuff down there to use. The coalfields shut largely due to economic viability as well as the union pish that was going on, and they will open again when it becomes economically viable. As I said, coal is now becoming viable again, Europe’s consumption of coal grew by 3.3 percent in 2011. The increase was directly due to the glut of European Trading Scheme (ETS) emission allowances which made coal the most profitable electric power fuel. The US consumption of coal has dropped thanks to finding shale gas, they are selling their surplus coal to Europe! Coal production has increased by 6% worldwide in 2011 and that beats the just over 4% growth over the past decade.

We need to get the shovels out I reckon!

[Tryfield]

Has anyone said LINWOOD yet? Last years "Plook on a Plinth" winner.

[Hedgecutter]

My old bosses faither was a geologist

I'm also one

Snadstone under pressure is one of the toughest rocks to drill through apparently.

Going to disagree on that one I'm afraid. Under pressure sands are the targets up to a few thousand metres beneath the North Sea and a drillers dream compared to other shite down there.

thanks to a huge sandstone plug in the Mauchline basin.

Part of an isolated desert dune field from back in the Permian - has a world-class textbook example of a dune cross-section near Mauchline itself.

The coal down there is apprently the cleanest burning , highest grade stuff its possible to get

Pretty much, part of the reason why Scotland became the world's first industrialised nation.

Coal is becoming viable again thanks to the green policies...

I'm sure the Greenies are delighted with this.

[Reynard]

I'm also one

Going to disagree on that one I'm afraid. Under pressure sands are the targets up to a few thousand metres beneath the North Sea and a drillers dream compared to other shite down there.

Part of an isolated desert dune field from back in the Permian - has a world-class textbook example of a dune cross-section near Mauchline itself.

Pretty much, part of the reason why Scotland became the world's first industrialised nation.

I'm sure the Greenies are delighted with this.

I'm just going by what I was told obviously. They apparently wasted plenty of drilling equipment trying to get through the stuff back in the day. Sinking the pit in the wrong place didn't help either I suppose.

As you will know, there's plenty of fuel down there to last us a long long time anyway. Getting it out economically is the issue and the market value of whats down there will be the reasons we go back for it. It will be a huge asset for us again in due course.

He started off working at Pennyvenie ,ended up a shot firer as he was small and could crawl up to the coalface and get away quickly and then got trained up as a geologist ,which was a mine between New Cumnock and Dalmellington and there was a village up there supported by the mine. When it shut the folk moved to Cumnock , New Cumnock and Dalmellington itself and the miners were bussed to whatever pit they had found work at. It was a fair sized village seemingly and theres no trace of it at all now.

I know f**k all about the geology of the area other than I know the Mauchline basin was sandstone. I do a bit of work for Lord Strathclyde at his place just outside Mauchline and he has a pretty spectacular sandstone gorge where the river Ayr runs through. Dont think many folk get to see that because the river Ayr walk by passes his land in case he shoots them.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Reynard

[TurbineTon]

Glenluce. It's in the arse end of nowhere and is boring.

[Reynard]

I'm also one

Going to disagree on that one I'm afraid. Under pressure sands are the targets up to a few thousand metres beneath the North Sea and a drillers dream compared to other shite down there.

Part of an isolated desert dune field from back in the Permian - has a world-class textbook example of a dune cross-section near Mauchline itself.

Pretty much, part of the reason why Scotland became the world's first industrialised nation.

I'm sure the Greenies are delighted with this.

Wheres that pic taken from? Is it the old sandstone quarry at Mauchline? My house is built from that stuff.

[GordieBoy80]

Was that the one across the road from the Carnegie Centre? Might be a blessing in disguise really if they have to demolish it. The old giant Coopy thing sat towards the bottom of the High St for donkeys years until they were forced to build the new bus station.

Also, where exactly is this new Tesco site? Struggling to think where they'd put it.

Yeah it is, I think it's a listed building which obviously causes problems. The new Tesco site is where the old Thomson's furniture warehouse was.

On topic the Glasgow Central Low Level trains eastbound have shown me some of the shittest towns I've ever seen.

Add Hurlford to the list of shitty places in Ayrshire imo, and Skinflats is depressing as f**k.

[Hedgecutter]

Wheres that pic taken from? Is it the old sandstone quarry at Mauchline? My house is built from that stuff.

Ballochmyle quarry by Mauchline. That outcrop has long since collapsed though.

Anyway, enough geology pish - the general story here is that Scotland will soon become the mass coal exporter of the world and your guys from Ballingry will be the ones driving about in their Ferraris laughing at you lot. Well, not quite... but there's potential hope for some of these places. Trouble is that most of it will be done by more funcy machinery meaning there won't be the same workforce required as before. Still, it'll be an improvement.

[Reynard]

Ballochmyle quarry by Mauchline. That outcrop has long since collapsed though.

Anyway, enough geology pish - the general story here is that Scotland will soon become the mass coal exporter of the world and your guys from Ballingry will be the ones driving about in their Ferraris laughing at you lot. Well, not quite... but there's potential hope for some of these places. Trouble is that most of it will be done by more funcy machinery meaning there won't be the same workforce required as before. Still, it'll be an improvement.

Cheers.

Hopefully our politicians will not be too ideologically attached to their green agenda and we can get the stuff out and start generating cheaper electricity as a result. We all benefit from that at the very least, never mind the extra jobs that would come from howking out the coal again.