PEOPLE in Helensburgh and Lomond have long known that the area is a particularly special place - and a new survey has now ranked it, and the wider Argyll and Bute area, is the best place to live in Scotland.

Scottish job site HiJOBS has ranked the area in joint first place, alongside Orkney, as the best place to work in Scotland.

According to the site, average hourly pay rates in Argyll and Bute have grown nearly 20 per cent in the past year with annual salaries up by more than 10 per cent.

Chris Snelgrove, technical director and founder of HiJOBS, said: “We founded HiJOBS on the firm belief that Scotland has some of the best places to work in the world.

“The Sunday Times selection shines a light on some of our country’s gems, and it’s great to see from our data that Argyll & Bute and Orkney also have a lot to offer job seekers, with more jobs at better rates of pay appearing on the HiJOBS website.”

The area was also praised for its rural scenery, number of local events and small businesses, and transport links with Glasgow.

The Sunday Times previously ranked Perthshire as the top area to live in based on the quality of local schools, shops, restaurants, broadband connections and transport links.

However, HiJOBS notes that salaries in Perthshire rose by just over 8 per cent and hourly rates by 11 per cent between 2020 and 2022 – making the area possibly less attractive to jobseekers.