22 October 2026
Inverurie crowned Scotland’s Town of the Year 2026 as BID Manager Derek Ritchie named High Street Hero
Double success at the Scotland Loves Local Awards recognises Inverurie’s thriving business community, major events, strong partnerships and continued work to strengthen the town.
Inverurie has been named Scotland’s Town of the Year 2026, with We Are Inverurie BID Manager Derek Ritchie also receiving a High Street Hero Award for North East Scotland in an exceptional double success for the town.
The honours were announced as part of the Scotland Loves Local Awards, organised by Scotland’s Towns Partnership and supported by the Scottish Government.
Inverurie was selected for the national Town of the Year title from a five-town shortlist which also included East Kilbride, Falkirk, Fort William and Kirkwall.
The award recognises towns demonstrating a clear vision, strong partnership working and tangible progress towards creating vibrant and sustainable places, strengthening both their local economy and wider community.
For Inverurie, the accolade reflects years of collective effort involving businesses, community organisations, volunteers, residents and public-sector partners.
At the heart of that success is an exceptionally strong and diverse business community.
Inverurie continues to combine long-established and multi-generational independent businesses with newer enterprises, professional services and major national retailers. Together, they create a town centre which serves not only Inverurie’s growing population, but communities across a much wider part of Aberdeenshire.
That strength is reflected in consistently high levels of business occupancy. Recent retail analysis recorded vacancy at around 4% of units and just 1% of floorspace, while Aberdeenshire Council’s longer-term town-centre monitoring has consistently identified Inverurie’s low vacancy as one of its commercial strengths.
Town-centre footfall also increased by almost 10% between January 2025 and January 2026, while Inverurie continues to buck national trends by retaining four major bank branches alongside a building society – an increasingly rare level of face-to-face banking provision for a Scottish town.
For We Are Inverurie BID, these indicators reflect the central purpose of the organisation: to continually promote, support and champion the businesses which make Inverurie special, while helping create the conditions in which existing businesses can thrive and new businesses want to invest.
Through the BID, local businesses collectively invest in projects designed to improve Inverurie’s trading environment and strengthen the town as a place to visit, work, shop, live and do business.
Its work spans business promotion and marketing, advocacy, training, digital development, events, attracting external funding and investment, supporting community partners and helping improve the appearance, activity and appeal of the town centre.
A defining feature of Inverurie’s progress has been collaboration.
We Are Inverurie works closely with organisations including Inverurie Events SCIO, Evolving Inverurie, Inverurie Environmental Improvement, Inverurie Community Council, Inverurie Business Association and other local partners, recognising that the strongest projects often happen when organisations bring together their different skills and resources.
That approach has helped develop an annual events programme with reach well beyond the town itself. Through partnership and funding support for Inverurie Events SCIO, Inverurie now hosts a substantial programme of destination events capable of attracting thousands of people into the town.
The annual Christmas Festival has grown into a series of events including the major lights switch-on and fireworks display, Cairngorm Reindeer Parade, Santa Runs, Breakfast with Santa and the Christmas Tractor Run. The lights switch-on itself regularly attracts thousands of visitors into Inverurie town centre.
The programme has expanded further through Taste of Garioch, which celebrates the region’s food and drink sector and brings producers, traders and visitors together in the heart of Inverurie.
The Garioch Pipe Band Championships has similarly developed into a major celebration of Scottish music and culture, attracting competing bands and spectators before culminating in the spectacle of massed pipe bands through the town.
These events are important not only as community celebrations, but as economic drivers. They create reasons to visit Inverurie, introduce the town to new audiences, increase footfall and provide opportunities for local businesses to benefit from thousands of additional visitors.
Partnership working is also visible across Inverurie’s public spaces and community projects. We Are Inverurie BID has provided continued support to Inverurie Environmental Improvement, whose volunteers maintain more than 180 hanging baskets alongside town-centre planters and seasonal displays.
The BID has also supported the work of Evolving Inverurie across projects including community art, heritage initiatives and wider place-based development, helping strengthen Inverurie’s identity and create opportunities for people to become involved in shaping the town’s future.
That connection between business and community organisations is also reflected personally in Derek Ritchie’s involvement across Inverurie. Alongside his role as BID Manager, Derek is a trustee of both Evolving Inverurie and Inverurie Events, helping connect the town’s business community with major events, community development projects and wider opportunities for Inverurie.
His separate recognition as a High Street Hero acknowledges the role of the individuals who help turn those partnerships into action. Derek has been BID Manager throughout much of Inverurie’s recent development, acting as a dedicated point of contact and advocate for businesses while connecting the commercial community with charities, community organisations, public bodies and other partners.
His role ranges from promoting and supporting individual businesses and representing their interests to helping events happen, identifying funding opportunities, supporting community projects and promoting Inverurie regionally.
In 2026, that advocacy also included publicly challenging the impact of rising business rates on Inverurie businesses, arguing that the town should not be disadvantaged because of the strength of its commercial performance.
The High Street Hero Awards recognise the people and organisations who go above and beyond to strengthen their town centres, high streets and local economies through dedication, initiative and leadership.
Derek Ritchie, BID Manager at We Are Inverurie, said:
“To see Inverurie named Scotland’s Town of the Year is incredibly special, but this is an award for the whole town.
There is no single project, organisation or person responsible for what Inverurie has become. It comes from businesses investing here, people choosing to shop and spend time here, volunteers giving enormous amounts of their time and organisations being willing to work together rather than separately.
We have an incredible mix of long-established independents, newer businesses and national names, events which now attract thousands of people and community groups constantly pushing new ideas forward.
The role of Inverurie BID has always been to promote, support and champion the businesses that make Inverurie so special, while helping bring people and organisations together around opportunities which benefit the town.
To personally receive a High Street Hero Award in the same year is a real honour. I’m fortunate to work alongside so many people who care passionately about Inverurie, whether through BID or the many other organisations and businesses contributing to the town.
This recognition is really about that collective effort; be it the imminent delivery of our much-needed Town Centre CCTV system or other projects in the works, there is still a huge amount we want to achieve.”
The Town of the Year award comes at a time when Inverurie continues to attract new businesses and investment while retaining the independent character which has long been central to the town.
Its mix of retail, hospitality, financial and professional services, community activity, major events and everyday local amenities has increasingly positioned Inverurie as an important commercial and visitor centre for the wider Garioch and Aberdeenshire area.
For We Are Inverurie BID, the award is not being viewed as the end of that work.
The BID will continue to promote its members, advocate on behalf of the business community, invest in events and place-based projects and work alongside local organisations to create more reasons for people to visit, spend time and do business in Inverurie.
Scotland’s Town of the Year 2026 therefore recognises what has already been achieved – but also provides another platform from which Inverurie can keep moving forward.
It is recognition of a town which has built momentum by working together, supporting its businesses and taking pride in the place it calls home.
