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Skiddaw1

It's a lovely part of the country (we spend quite a lot of time in the Borders being as we're in Cumbria) and whilst I've never lived there, we have friends who do (Dumfries). I'd say in general, it's a friendly and not parochial part of the country and you could do a great deal worse. As well as Annan, take a look at Moffat (we considered moving to Moffat at one stage) and there are plenty of other small towns to consider. I'd second the suggestion of taking a trip up and having a good rummage about. See how you feel and take it from there. Good luck with it- I hope it works out for you.

[Deleted User]

My dad lives in Annan and has done for years.  Depending on what you are looking for then its is a nice enough place.  It has essentially morphed in to a commuter town that serves Carlisle more than anything.   High street is fairly dead and otherwise not a lot to do.   Has a good community feel to it through with the football and rugby clubs being afocal point as well as the Riding of the Marches.   
Lovely walks around the place and decent enough location to carry on up to Ayrshire on the A76, or up to Glasgow on the M74, as well as back down to England on the M6 and on to the Lakes.    Its a good location for living and travelling elsewhere. Not alot of jobs there though

[Deleted User]

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coffeehound

[DELETED USER]   My wife would like to work which would be something part time and local, but it's not a massive priority and would only be something like shop work.

She doesn't drive so ideally needs a supermarket within walking/bus distance. Access to an airport would be nice although again lower down on the list. 

Gretna Green has a retail 'village' which is one stop down the tracks from Annan.  The airport situation is poor; Prestwick was quite busy at one time but has little or no domestic flights now.  Similarly for Carlisle which went belly up after Stobbart air tanked.  Glasgow is now likely your nearest from D&G.

Skiddaw1

Agree, but there's also a regular train service to Manchester airport from Carlisle.

happyc84

Is the OP planning on working in D&G; very rural area. Dumfries is the main hub. Try Edinburgh or Glasgow very cosmopolitan cities.

Arfa__

[DELETED USER] said:

It's a 10 hour drive for us so we have not visited yet. Just trying to find places we can afford and which aren't too brexity. In fact one of the attractions of Scotland is the possibility of getting EU citizenship back, which would have big benefits for us. In fact just being independent of the UK would be advantageous for us, due to the way the EU settlement scheme is being handled.

We're in the process of doing a similar to you. Selling up down South, getting more bang for buck in Scotland and a better lifestyle, scenery etc to boot. Like you, I can work remote anywhere and my wife is a nurse, so jobs everywhere. We too were keen live somewhere fairly progressive and diverse (though granted it would be very different to East London!) For us, the criteria was similar, but I needed to stay reasonably close to transport links to London and airports and good high schools for kids was key too.

TBH you do just need to get up there and explore. We just spent a week in Falkirk then explored all the surrounding areas to get a feel of places. You can't beat walking around areas, have a meal out in the evenings in each area and so on. Also use tools like https://simd.scot to get an indication of an area.

We only checked out Lockerbie in D&G, short direct train to London was a pro. But the town felt like a zombie-town, the local school only had mediocre results and most places on the market we liked were in earshot of the M74. Ridden through Moffat, looked nice, some wicked roads nearby for motorcycling though!

For us, we narrowed our search to Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Linlithgow as our favourites. Did also check out Falkirk, Polpont, Brightons, Larbert, Dalkeith, Eskbank, Currie, Balerno, Juniper Green, and Haddington, which had different pros/cons but fell short compared to our favourites. We're now currently purchasing a place in Stirling, which ticked many boxes - small, relaxed, but enough to maintain interest, some diversity and liveliness from the Uni, good schools, and a stone's throw from the posher Bridge of Allan. Direct trains to London and under an hour from Glasgow & Edinburgh for airports and more culture.

Hope that helps a little!

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

I'm off there on holiday tomorrow. Last time we went in August it was windy and rainy and we had the heating on. 

So why not go for October half term because it's madness to pick somewhere based on what they voted for. Your racist neighbour might have voted brexit but just because D and G didn't doesn't mean there aren't any racists there....!

[Deleted User]

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Arfa__

[DELETED USER] said:

Thanks, that's really helpful. If I am understanding that tool correctly the blue parts are the lest deprived, i.e. the best places to live. The red ones are ones to avoid.

Stirling looks quite nice. We don't have kids so it's more a question of picking a time and just going, maybe a long bank holiday weekend but that doesn't leave a huge amount of time. Fly up and rent a car, although flying worries me a lot at the moment with the Johnson variant raging and numbers going up.

Yes, the blue areas are best on Simd.Scot and thus often most expensive too.

I'd suggest you take a car, you'll need some way to get around and explore. Plus less worries on social distancing. Do note, Scotland is far more cautious on Covid restrictions, only dropping restrictions last week and with the vast majority still wearing masks, unlike England! FWIW For one trip I paid £340 for a small hatchback for a week from Budget. Cost me ~£50 in petrol each way. Do tick unlimited miles though! You'll likely exceed the 100 miles/day limit just on the journey up and back. When I checked that worked out cheaper than getting to local airport, flying up and then renting a car up there. A weekend is a push, but did do the trip in three days on motorbike, out on Friday, viewed houses on Saturday, back on Sunday. That was a hard slog though.

Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Linlithgow are more expensive than other central belt areas, but it's fairly clear why. Getting out of town a bit is cheaper however if that fits your criteria. You could consider Perthshire and Fife too, I only dismissed them due to longer distance to London, schools etc. I was recommended Dalgety Bay, Cupar and St. Andrews, but never had chance to check them out.