hi guys – looking to buy in the UK for early retirement planning.

want somewhere with good outdoor access for mountain biking, hiking, and general high quality of life.

cinemas, restaurants and large city must be easily reachable.

i am open to anything but think i’d prefer to be up northern england.

the home in NE Scotland is rented out these days as I’m expatriated.

Looking to the collective for thoughts and inspiration.

TIA 🙂

Depends on your definition of easily reachable. Kirkby Lonsdale isn’t that easy for a large city – best part of 2 hours to Manchester from there, similar to Leeds. Kendal would be your nearest cinema.

If that’s not a problem, I’d be looking around Kendal itself.

If close amenities are a priority, perhaps somewhere in the Eastern Peak District to put Sheffield in easy range?

As above, nearer Kendal or the Eden Valley around Penrith/Carlisle ( but at least 5metres higher than the river….).
KL is nice – great pub and brewery!

Kirkby is nice, but as stated above it is a fair old trek to anywhere large.

When I’m ready I’m going to buy this.

West side of the Peak District maybe. 30-40 minutes into Manchester, hills on your doorstep, or the Sheffield side. Harrogate for generally easy access to the Dales with a shortish hop to Leeds/York and local stuff too.

I guess it depends on what sort of place you want to live in the first place – village, town, isolated barn in the middle of nowhere etc. And how often you want to access ‘big civilisation’. And what you want from your local landscape – big hills, mountains, undulating moors etc.

Bridge of Allan/Dunblane area worth thinking about.

Close to both Glasgow and Edinburgh, good biking locally and a shortish drive to Cairngorms etc too.

If you want to be anywhere near a city in N of England, then the surrounding hills are going to be busy. Sheffield and the Peak frinstance – Ladybower is busier than GT at times.

KL is actually pretty crap for MTBing. You need to choose either dales or lakes. Plenty of options in both so long as you don’t really mean it about the city being in easy reach. Skipton is edge of dales and easy reach of Leeds. Otherwise, do Kendal and Penrith meet your definition of big city?
Edit: I mean crap in terms of riding from the door…obvs there’s plenty in a short drive.

Fancy something in the North of England. Still got house up in NE Scotland.

BWD, please expand on West side of Peaks – Locations ?

KL is the pretty much the same distance from the m’way as Kendal, shirley?

It’s ‘nice’ in a tourist twon kind of way. Bloody expensive and not the best MTB wise. Kendal’s got a bit more going on

Skipton?

Windermere – surprisingly not a lot more expensive than Kendal

Penrith also nice.

My grandparents live near KL.

It’s a nice enough town/village with all the usual town/village things and some decent restaurants and pubs.

It’s (IMO) great for MTBing, there’s enough bridleways on the doorstep for varied local rides but you’re close to the Lakes and Dales, or even N.Yorkshire or the Peaks.

Big towns, Kendal and Lancaster are a bit far to go for a meal, or to get a taxi back from, but not too far for a trip to the cinema etc.

Also Kendal is less than 3hrs from central London (and Glasgow) on the choo-choo.

If you go to Kirkby Lonsdale it is mandatory to jump from the Devil’s Bridge, so do that.

If you go to Kirkby Lonsdale it is mandatory to jump from the Devil’s Bridge, so do that.

The water was upto the arches recently, so maybe give it a miss for a few months :-p

Skipton might be better, Leeds/Harrogate not that far away, direct rail line to leeds which takes about 40mins. Yet, right on the Dales and you could be in Ambleside within an hour, I think.

Have a look at Richmond, North Yorkshire. Plenty of rides up dale as the say. Scotty land not to far really and that there Lakes even closer. On edge of the Dales and you can see North Yorks Moors. Whats not to like?

Harrogate looks nice, and I’ll take a look at Richmond too.

Lovely stuff thanks, keep it coming.

Kendal has shit pubs just a thought for you I have to travel for a decent alehouse not far mind 🙂

I like Harrogate. Attractive town, good shops and restaurants. But for retirement, wouldn’t it be more important to have decent MTBing out of the door? I suppose it depends whether you are aiming for a large town or city not too far from countryside, or a good bit of countryside (which may still be a small town with some services) not too far from a city. Edge of Sheffield might be the best bet for really combining both.

Something like Penrith could tick lots of those with the city choice via train being Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and maybe Carlisle all being within a decent train ride. Good beer, great people and great riding.

KL is nice, some local ish MTB on Hutton Roof (but not much) some lovely riding within 30/40 mins in the car in east Lakes, Howghylls (sp), Dales, and that there near trail centre that name has currently escaped me!

+ it has a Booths

Harrogate has very little riding from the door, same travel times to bid other riding (if not further) and is a much more city type environment than country town

BWD, please expand on West side of Peaks – Locations ?

You could look at the whole Glossop area – on the up, lots of BBC media city folk, nice restaurants etc. Or more likely Hayfield, which is less connected in train terms and lacks shops etc, but is in an incredible location. Or check out the likes of Chinley and Whaley Bridge.

Road links into Manchester tend to be horribly congested, but rail is good either Glossop direct or from New Mills. Further out you’ve got the likes of Hope, Castleton, Hathersage, which are all more rural.

Or further north there are always places like Holmfirth and the whole Hebden/Calderdale conurbation.

I await the howls of dissent on the Glossop front, but if you don’t need to drive into Manchester around rush hour time and want a mix of easy access to the Peak District and surprisingly good restaurants, pubs, shops etc, it’s a nice place to live. Lots of BBC people and Manchester Uni academics have fundamentally changed the feel of the place over the past five years or so, has stuff like an M&S Simply Food, Costa, plus lots of pubs/eateries etc.

Have you thought about Keswick btw? A bit isolated, but quite a lot going on and mountains out of the front door. Expensive though.

If you are rich Ilkley is the retirement town of choice.

It has a Booths, and Betty’s

Betty’s

The biggest let down ever is Betty’s.

Not for people of retirement age 😆

Just look at who goes in there !

Dore, SW Sheffield is the place. 5 miles from city centre with good links, including rail, and right on the edge of the Peak District. Small centre with shops, pubs and an Indian restaurant.

The biking is ace too. And yes, I do live there ?

^^ do you live on abbeydale road?

“It’s Dore, honest” 😉

do you live on abbeydale road?

Erm, no. Why…?

I grew up in KL and my mum still lives there (and yes I’ve jumped off Devil’s Bridge 🙂 ). It’s pretty but it’s a bit ‘hunting, shooting, fishing’ and full of poncey lifestyle shops these days. Housing is really expensive too. Riding from the door is ok but not great – there’s stuff around Barbon and Farleton Knott is within riding distance. Lakes is quite close in a car obviously.

Where I live now in Calderdale is miles better for walking and biking and more going on in terms of culture/music etc – easy to get to Leeds/Manc on a train.

Never been a fan of Kendal really. It’s near the actual Lake District and has the Brewery arts centre and a good climbing wall I suppose.

Skipton would be a better option than KL IMO. Then you could shop here too:

https://keelhamfarmshop.co.uk/pages/skipton

Much as I love the Dales – it’s somewhere I’d quite happily live and retire – a lot of it is quite remote compared to the Peak District for example. If going to the city from time to time is important to you, maybe the Peak would be better.

Bakewell is a lovely town slap bang in the middle of the Peak District (in fact the only town in the Peak District) and is within easy doorstep reach of good biking and a fairly shortish drive to Sheffield, Manchester and Derby. Chesterfield is within 15 minutes drive for a big cinema. The one thing against it is the lack of a railway station and it can be busy with tourists.

Muzzle – just joshing you. I know a few peeps who live on the top end of abbeydale and vehemently insist it’s Dore 🙂

For the OP – any west/south west suburb of Sheffield of even Chesterfield would put you within a few mins of the peaks and city type stuff (although admittedly wouldn’t have much a remote type feeling)

RRR – Ah, I see.

Actually I do live quite close to Abbeydale Road 😳