Aberdeen named "Plook on the Plinth"

The Granite City has been given the award no-one wants - the Carbuncle Award, for the most dismal place in Scotland.

Published 3rd Feb 2015

Aberdeen has been named the most dismal place in Scotland.

The "Plook on the Plinth" Carbuncle Award is awarded every year by Urban Realm magazine.

Previous winners include Cumbernauld, Glenrothes and John O'Groats - but this is the first time a city's been given the dubious accolade. The Granite City is criticised for its "flimsy" modern buildings and the haemorrhaging of shops on Union Street, as people retreat to covered malls like Union Square.

The magazine has also highlighted a "litany of embarrassing missteps from the Union Terrace Gardens fiasco to the failed bid for 2017 City of Culture to today's fracas over Marischal Square."