Best of the best towns

BACK to the small towns which pop up often. Musselburgh and Nairn stake claims, but the top five remains the same – albeit in a different order.

DUNKELD, Perthshire: A regular in a wide range of categories – its cathedral was named as a great place to get married and the area is often named in the best-walk category. Also a good place for toilets and skimming stones. More recently, it has been praised for the folly at The Hermitage and the ospreys at the Loch of the Lowes.

NORTH BERWICK, East Lothian: Slips to No 2 after the toilets at the harbour – not the famed award-winning ones opposite the chippie – were described as "disgraceful". But new praise as a sailing base, to add to its mentions in best view, Italian restaurant, farm shop, independent wine shop, dive site and walk.

MOFFAT, Dumfriesshire Up the charts after summer mentions for the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall and the Colvin Fountain, "a sandstone fountain of rough-hewn, corncockle-red blocks with a statue of a blackface ram on top". Also noted as a classic Victorian spa town and for its boating pond and sweet shop.

ST ANDREWS, Fife Still gets regular mentions for golf, as one might expect – and has also been recommended for a host of other categories, including best ice-cream (Jannettas), best spot for stargazing, best boating pond, best cheese shop (Mellis) and best small cinema. Its beaches have often been praised – for building sandcastles and flying kites and getting the kids out.

BRIDGE OF ALLAN, Stirlingshire Named as one of the best Victorian spa towns, but also praised for its food and drink – featured in best deli, fish and chips, ice-cream and independent wine shops. The Allanwater Café, in Henderson Street, has been praised for both its ice-cream and fish and chips.