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zagubov

Arfa__ said:

[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!

Not wanting to hijack the OPs thread, but Arfa__ 's made a good call. Stirling's small, safe, affordable; you can get easy motorway and rail access to Glasgow for concerts, opera, ballet and shopping and Edinburgh for the Festival and fringe.

You've Britain's most northerly Waitrose, and a decent microclimate with less wind than Edinburgh and much less rain than Glasgow, plus access to the highlands.

Airports less than an hour's drive plus sleeper trains to and from London.

Skiddaw1

Stirling is lovely . Mind you, if you're prepared to live a bit further north, I'd be tempted by Inverness.