Transport officials in Scotland are struggling to spell the names of some of the country’s most well-known towns on road signs , it has emerged.

A recent Freedom of Information request found that authorities were forced to scrap a number of signs because of spelling mistakes. In some other cases, roads were mixed up and Gaelic names had to be added.

The company responsible for road signs across the country, Quango Transport Scotland, has admitted to one instance, which involved ‘Dalwhinnie’ being spelt incorrectly on a sign located near Bruar, on the A9.

The town, which is known for whisky production, had been spelt ‘Dalwinnie’.

Hawick, a town on the Scottish border which hit the headlines earlier this month when its name was used in the hit video game Grand Theft Auto 5, was involved in a similar incident when the workers who made a sign to go on the A7 inserted an ‘r’ to make ‘Harwick’.

Some drivers were also left confused by the mixing up of the A923 and the A922 on a sign at the side of the A9. Fortunately, this error was rectified before any cases of drivers making the unnecessary 15-minute diversion were reported.

Taxpayer Scotland’s Eben Wilson expressed his disappointment by saying that money had been wasted on the signs. He also suggested the managers at Transport Scotland start using road atlases to avoid making any further mistakes.

Wilson’s thoughts will no doubt be echoed by taxpayers across the country, with basic mistakes often easy to avoid. The oversights have obviously caused embarrassment for Transport Scotland, and the case should act as a stark reminder for business owners across the UK to ensure the content on their websites is error-free. As we mentioned earlier this week, even the smallest of mistakes can cause consumers to lose faith in a company.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.