There is no road rage and no rush hour and just one mini roundabout, down on the pier. Traffic lights appear only when the council is digging up the road. And the main hazards, if you can call them that, are single-track roads and the occasional sheep asleep in the fast lane.

Welcome to Gairloch, a learner-driver's haven. This tiny West Coast village (population 1,056) is the top place in the UK for passing your driving test first time.

Figures released by the Driving Standards Agency show that Gairloch has an admirable 71 per cent pass rate at the first attempt. This compares with the lowest figure — 27 per cent — in Heaton, West Yorkshire.

Rural Scotland generally has some of the most proficient drivers, with eight test centres among the top ten in the UK with the highest pass rates. Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, had a 68 per cent first-time pass rate; while Oban had a rate of 63 per cent; Lochgilphead, Campbeltown and Ballater 62 per cent; and Isle of Tiree and Cupar, Fife, 61 per cent.

English test centres fill all the bottom ten centres for pass rates.

Richard Greene, a local councillor, said: “Obviously we have a very competent local instructor, Jonathon Talloch. Maybe it is the mild temperament ... you could say we have no road rage.” Mr Greene said he thought that there was a different mindset when driving in Gairloch, a 150-mile round trip from Inverness. The final four miles of the journey into the village were on single-track road, as were all the local side roads. This, he said, made drivers more aware, cautious and better at anticipating.

A spokesman for the Driving Standards Agency said that the regional variation was due to drivers in some areas being more prepared for their test than others. “The wealthier the area, the more money budding motorists have to spend on lessons,” he said.

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