John o' Groats has been named as this year's recipient of the notorious Carbuncle Awards 2010 as the most dismal place in Scotland.
East Kilbride, Lochgelly, Inverness and Denny were also in the running for the Plook on the Plinth award from the editorial team from architecture magazine Urban Realm.
Denny came in for criticism over its town centre, but judges said that it was felt that John o' Groats status as an international tourist draw made its shortcomings all the more damaging for Scotland as a whole.
They said that John o'Groats was a "Windswept outpost" and "Home to Britain's most northerly derelict building", and criticised it for its reliance on cheap tourist souvenirs and over-commercialisation.
Carbuncles spokesperson John Glenday said: "John o' Groats may be geographically on top of the world but its built environment is scraping bottom.
"Its great distance should be no excuse for losing sight of the fact that this motley agglomeration of buildings on the edge of the sea that so many travel so far to see is unduly prominent internationally. What sort of impression is this torrid environment making on those who have traveled furthest to see it and what must they report to family and friends back home?
"Until this northerly outpost starts treating its guests with respect there can be no hope of becoming a genuinely significant tourist draw."
Carbuncles judge Drew Mackie commented: "Having cycled 800 miles from Land's End to get here I would wonder why I bothered. This is the most anti-climactic tourist attraction that I know - and the UK is not lacking in these.
"An air of dereliction hangs over the place. Not surprising as the main hotel building is derelict and the most striking feature is a large car park. Various tourist haunts hang around this and give the impression of not wanting to look at each other like early arrivals at a party.
"The whole effect is augmented by a series of sheds and caravans, lurking with tourist intent."
The announcement of the award comes along with the naming of Scotland's worst new building, the St James Retail Centre in East Kilbride. The building was described as "so remarkable in its shabbiness it was actually on a shortlist of one", adding that Scotland's most successful New Town is getting too many peripheral schemes that are in danger of sending its town centre into a spiral of decline, and turning it into a future carbuncle.
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