New data from Tripadvisor has revealed the areas with the dirtiest restaurant and pub toilets in Scotland.

The research comes as diners are encouraged to 'eat out to help out' by the UK government, as part of a new bid to boost the economy following the coronavirus lockdown.

More than ever, cleanliness and hygiene matter for those looking to go to a restaurant, and certain areas of the country appear to have a better reputation for keeping their ablutions cleaner than others.

Irvine Times: The best and worse areas in ScotlandThe best and worse areas in Scotland

The research, carried out by Latham's Hardware, scraped the Tripadvisor reviews of about 110,000 pubs and restaurants in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) and isolated any reviews where the customer had specifically mentioned the toilets. That left the researchers with 12,041 reviews.

Of those 12,041 Tripadvisor reviews, data shows the comments are rarely positive, with the majority of keywords having a negative sentiment including “dirty”, “filthy”, “smelly”, “disgusted” and “awful”.

Where are the dirtiest toilets in restaurants and pubs across Scotland?

To make the data fairer, the researchers created a “proportional” total of complaints that took into account respective population sizes.

When population numbers are taken into account, the study revealed that Edinburgh generally has the worst reviews followed by Glasgow.

Here are the worst locations in Scotland...

1. Edinburgh

2. Glasgow

3. Argyll and Bute

4. Highlands

5. Hebrides

6. Aberdeenshire (Including city)

7. Perth and Kinross

8. Dumfries and Galloway

9. Borders

10. Shetland Islands

11. Dundee City

12. Fife

13. Midlothian 

What about the best locations?

1. West Dunbartonshire

2. East Renfrewshire

3. Clackmannanshire

4. Falkirk

5. Inverclyde

6. East Dunbartonshire

7. West Lothian

8. Lanarkshire

9. Renfrewshire

10. Moray

11. Orkney Islands

12. East Lothian

13. Angus

14. Ayrshire and Arran

VIEW THE INTERACTIVE MAP HERE