A Moray community is celebrating after achieving the silver award in the Royal Horticultural Society Britain in Bloom Awards.
Dufftown was put forward for the honour after its great success last year in the Keep Scotland Beautiful competition.
Judges were impressed with the variety of planting and colour variation. They also remarked on good local heritage and the town being immaculately clean.
The competition is in its 50th year and Dufftown’s prize falls into the large village category.
Anne Fraser, of Dufftown in Bloom, said: “Just being invited to take part was exciting for us. We are lucky in Dufftown that we have a very active volunteer community and there are a large number of clubs and groups who all complement each other’s work.
“We discovered just how much work is taking place by the ‘unsung heroes’, by those groups who like us just quietly get on with the task in hand and let the results show for themselves.”
Ms Fraser added: “Our pride in being the invited Large Village entrant from Scotland cannot be underestimated – this has been an absolutely fantastic journey.”
During the months of July and August the judging panel, led by Roger Burnett toured the UK.
They met community representatives of each finalist and visited local projects assessing against three key criteria: horticultural achievement, community participation and environmental responsibility.
Commenting on Dufftown in Bloom’s efforts RHS judges Jim Goodwin and Nigel Bishop said: “It appears that many support the Bloom campaign, and this is complemented by the local distilleries with their wonderful displays.
“Good local heritage was evident and the whole town was immaculately clean. Good hospitality and a warm Scottish welcome. We left wanting to return.”