VisitScotland has issued a formal apology after a map that was posted on the window of its Edinburgh Airport offices was revealed as being “hopelessly inaccurate”.

The tourism agency’s map – which was designed to show Scotland’s top holiday destinations to visiting tourists – reportedly contained “a host of whoppers”.

Cities, rivers and an entire Hebridean island had been located incorrectly on the map, with the mistakes including the misplacement of Inverness, Glasgow and John O’Groats – which had been moved 30 miles on the map past Thurso.

Elsewhere on the map, Benbecula, an island situated between North and South Mist, was wrongly positioned 76 miles north of its actual location, to Stornoway on Lewis.

A VisitScotland spokesperson confirmed that an apology had been issued and that the incorrect map would be replaced with a new version by the end of the week. They said: “This was an honest mistake which VisitScotland is very sorry about. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen and we’ve made every effort to correct this one.” Details: www.visitscotland.com

Photograph: www.britainonview.com