Here we go again, move to The Highlands.

What are the primary reasons for moving ?

I would start with that ...

Can't help with where would be best but I'd say that Pitlochry will be just as if not more expensive than Aviemore.

I live in deprived area which I hate. I've only stayed here beause I had family here. Now I don't. I love the outdoors, Munro bagging, cycling, paddling and wildlife. Always holiday in Scotland.

We need to move because we need a bigger house so may as well move somewhere we want to be.

Kingussie or Newtonmore is where I have thought of.  On the train line which is important to me.  Big enough a town but not too big

Personally I do not really like Aviemore but thats based on nothing much concrete.  Its a great location for the mountains and outdoor stuff.  Perhaps the best in the UK. 

What are your priorities?  Some of the strathspey towns are nice.

Fort William is the best obviously. Has a secondary school and a hospital.Loads of good leisure activities mtb, walking ski-ing climbing canoe/kayaking . However winter is long dark wet muddy cold. I like it

I'm inland of Nairn, on the way to Carrbridge. In the time honoured recommend your own decisions to others manner - that kind of works. What I love about where I live:-

The river Findhorn is beyond epic and if you don't paddle now, you will.
I can be on amazing beaches in 12 mins
I can be in Aviemore in half an hour.
I'm that bit closer to the west coast (Poolewe, Gairloch etc) than I would be if I was in the Cairgorms that a day trip is very realistic.
I'm 20mins from an airport if there is a family emergency (for Mrs C who has family down south)
Nairn is 12mins away for a proper supermarket (Aviemore's tesco is a bit average)
I'm 35mins from Inverness for the sort of industrial estate, larger city shops style stuff you might want every now and then. Also Raigmore Hospital which is not epic, but the best we have up here.
The riding and running out of my door are sublime.
I've got a sense of community here which I've not had my whole life previously.

I always thought I wanted to live in/near Aviemore. I've got friends who live there (and are in the outdoor pursuits industry) who are not that positive about it - can't put my finger on it. I like living near Aviemore (actually, when I say that I mean to the outdoors shizzle around Aviemore) but I'm no longer sure I'd want to live there.

What are the primary reasons for moving ?

☝️ Definitely get your head around this.

Also, how does it really compare with where you currently stay? Have you hung around on a wet Wednesday in November to truly see what's it's like - not just sooking an ice cream while on holiday in July.

While Highland/rural life has a lot going for it, every area and village / towns has different pro's and con's. Scenery while nice, doesn't reduce things like lack of services, huge travel time to get places, weather disruption, tourist business, shortage of housing, few jobs, slow broadband, costly food, etc, etc.

You have to deal with 'small place behaviours' as well, living cheek by cheek with everyone in society, the best and the worst. You're the incomer and they are not going to change anything for you - it's up to you to embrace and fit in.

Surely TJ, it's the very concrete in Aviemore that's part of the problem...?

Anyway, access to a suitable nursing job might limit choices a bit, are there any specific requirements?  Maybe look at Aberlour, Fochabers, Grantown on Spey, Forres, Elgin, Keith, Huntly areas?

I'm in Angus and absolutely love it here; similar feel to the above.  There are nursing roles of many sorts in Forfar &  at Stracathro hospital, keeping you as close to the hills as you would be in StrathSpey.  Or if a big hospital is a requirement, live in say Alyth and find work for her at Ninewells in Dundee?

If you work remotely I'd say the first priority would be the availability of a decent FTTP fibre optic internet infrastructure at your address so that you can have a rock solid connection to work over.

And if you think I'm being negative with my post, I'm not. I'm trying to be realistic.

It's the best move we ever made as a family. We exchanged inner city Sheffield for loch Tay. We had a fabulous 5 years there, my kids and we just took to the outdoors and had experiences and opportunities we just could not have had in the city.

However, our move to Dunblane has proved even better. We've got well paid and stable employment. We travel less. The kids could get to clubs, walk to school or friends houses. Visitors can come on the train. We're a hop and a skip from visiting the lads in Edinburgh and Glasgow as students. We've far more resources and opportunities here.

And the mountains are close by. And it's a hop up the A9 or A84 to get to wild places, West coast in 2 hours, Aviemore an hour and a half, etc. We still have great greenspace and nature on our doorstep.

Do consider employment - it was a major hindrance to us when we were really rural. Nursing in rural places is limited. Realistically you've got Perth, Stirling, Inverness, Oban and Ft William.

I think community hospital would be preferred. Good schools is definitely a priority

Forest riding from the door would be ideal and trail centre for the wee one not too far away.

Within range of supermarket delivery.

Never been in summer, usually go at Easter or Autumn ( last week when it was sleeting).

Lived in and around Inverness for years now, it's fab. Lived in the fort a bit, it's fab. Basically it's all fab. But very much what Matt says, in fact I was in town last week, it was 3pm, basically dark and pissing down. I said to Madame I wonder if all the COVID move to the Highlands people knew they were signing up for this? Some days it doesn't really get light and it's a long journey from new year to march

As others have said it's about community and making the most of what's here.

Moved to Angus nearly two years ago from Shetland and love it.

Easy access to the coast, hills, woods and plenty of quiet roads. Easy access to the east coast mainline, A9/90, Dundee and Aberdeen aren't far away for city stuff (or Edinburgh even) and the glens and over to Deesside isn't far either.

Other than the recent Storm Babet issues it's been much warmer and drier than we're used to too. Taps Aff!

Saying that, we did move down after 12 years in Shetland, so it's a whole new world of places and choices for us 🤣

Agreed with Matt, the Cairngorms are awesome. We can be at Laggan in less than 1.5 hours, so good days out are straightforward.

We're about 20 minutes from Stirling and Perth, an hour from Glasgow and Edinburgh, so all the amenities are accessible (shopping is rubbish anywhere in Scotland compared with down south, but we can live with that).

The biking is awesome, but I couldn't live in Dunkeld or Pitlochry as there's a microclimate of mist/fog to much & it would screw my asthma.

Reading what you're looking for, it sounds like you're looking for the Aberfoyle area.

Depends on what side of the Cairngorms you want to be, i like Blairgowrie/Alyth and the surrounding area, pretty much equidistant to Pitlochry for the highlands, but you are also within reach of Perth and Dundee easily, so big hospitals., amenities and lovely area with quite a decent price range for houses compared to other towns nearby that you've named. 

Pitlochry is just a tourist trap, expensive for what it is, further up you go the more away from things you get, Aviemore again is a tourist place most of the time, and not the nicest of places the rest of the time, further up you go, the more you get communities with more to offer, you have a lovely area covering Forres and Nairn, and so on, but you're well north then.

To add 2 more thoughts.....

The Moray Firth coast (and a bit inland there of) has a very different micro climate to further inland or over to the west. We were in Hampshire before the move up - statistically it Rains less where I am now to where I was in the south downs. True, it a bit ( a lot!) colder but that does mean I get to cross country ski from my door from time to time so win win!

Secondly, there is always that thing about if a place is as good to live as it is to go on holiday - I'd say it's better! Part of that is being imbedded in a community that you don't get as a grommet. Then there is the fact you can pick and choose the days you do stuff around the weather that you can't do as a visitor. Then there is the fact that normal weekends can be micro adventures....I genuinely don't feel I need holidays in the same way I did when I lived elsewhere because every day off feels like a holiday!

Do it!

Reading what you’re looking for, it sounds like you’re looking for the Aberfoyle area.

We thought about that 20 years ago when we left Perth, it is a lovely area, but bad weather causes mayhem around there, or it did back then!

Reading what you’re looking for, it sounds like you’re looking for the Aberfoyle area.

Closer to Stirling is much better, not least fewer midges and less likely to have the high street flooded twice a year...and the hordes of tourists make Aberfoyle rather unpleasant for a lot of the summer.

The west is brutally wet and the midges will drive you insane. Other than that, it's great.

I've been looking at Peebles, half seriously. No particular ties to any area (retired, older relatives almost dead). But apart from the housing it's hard to beat where we are in the Dales.

FWIW I'm also a fan of living in an area that's popular for tourism. You get a much higher density of facilities supported by visitors than you would just based on resident population. Sure it's a bit busy at times but that's because it's a nice place to be! Of course there are some places where it may be just unbearable, especially if traffic jams it up.

Oh yeah I forgot the midges, and for other summer pitas there's the roads which can get clogged up in summer from midday onwards

I was suggesting Aberfoyle area for the forest riding from the door, there's hundred of miles of it.

Agreed, Aberfoyle itself suffers when it's wet, avoid the town itself.

It's an easy commute into Glasgow from there, with plenty of opportunity for nursing & other work if needed in future.

I find the ochils a bit meh for riding, there's loads of great stuff within a short drive, but IMO not awesome from the door. If we were moving, Comrie would be high on my personal list.

As regards the Spey valley...

Aviemore is a bit more expensive than Kingussie/Newtonmore etc but that's mostly down to (a) demand and (b) services. We seriously looked at Kingussie but realised before putting in an offer that we'd end up up and down the A9 most days as Aviemore is just where "everything" is.

I wouldn't worry about the secondary school being in Kingussie. The majority of Aviemore kids get the bus to and fro every day. Some kids do go to Grantown, so that's an option.

Aviemore is, quite frankly, unparalled for access to a huge variety of trails, but also for walking running, paddling etc. It's where most of the "sports" groups run out of too (cycling, running, tennis, crossfit etc etc ). I rarely drive anywhere for activities these days as that just seems like time wasted.

As already pointed out, Aviemore has a much larger range of shops, pubs, cafes etc than it's population of around 3,500 justifies, all down to the number of visitors. Folk in the outlying villages are a bit weird in that they complain about everything being centered around Aviemore but then complain if there's additional housing proposed in their own villages 🙂

The unemployment rate in Aviemore is basically zero. In fact there are always adverts for staff, especially since Brexit.

The main downside, for me, is the goddam cold. It's not that I mind cold weather - I ice swim/dip, ride a fatbike in the snow, run on the ice etc - but Winter does seem to go on a bit sometimes. That's reflected in heating costs too 🙂 I often consider a move down towards Forres, just for the climate, but would miss everything being on my doorstep.

Basically, you're spoilt for choice!

Provided that you are able to sort out the nursing role...   pals in the profession here in Tayside tell me that there's plenty of work for the asking.

Good luck and hopefully you can make it happen.

Hopefully when you get here you can help by bringing your votes to help support the independence movement... So that we can saw off Westmonster and let it drift out alone into the north Atlantic.

There is a shortage of nurses nationwide.  If she will do care homes then even more choice but its often a crap job

Scotroutes says a lot of sense about aviemore.

Edit - as ever its all about what compromises you are willing to make.  I have never lived up there but I do prefer the smaller towns but then you are stuck with more travelling for everything

The weather’s shite here and the scenery rubbish, god knows why anyone would want to live here:

Midges are a very local issue -I’ve barely been bitten here in 2.5 years. Horseflies/ clegs are far worse IMO, particularly with ****ers like this about: about 40mm long.

wife is a nurse so we would need a hospital.

Oh - there is a hospital in Aviemore now, covering quite a large area.

My wife is a trained nurse too (though now lapsed) and works in the NHS doing Care at Home. There is never enough staff, so she would walk into a job in the area! IIRC nurses earn more in Scotland than England too? Might be role dependant.

If you are 99% WaH, where do you need to go occasionally? You might want to consider access to an airport in addition to a railway station.

We looked at a house near to Pitlochry 5 years ago. We ruled it out due to the distance to get back to family in the Midlands.

We finally moved 2 months ago, to Dumfries and Galloway. Dont dismiss it, we find it great.

Easy driving distance back to Leicester (4 hours), little village quiet, easy access to (big) shopping both Carlisle and Dumfries are 25 mins away (try finding 5 bathroom shops within 18 miles of your house in Aviemore), house prices are cheap, rental is 30% cheaper than the midlands, lots of biking, open access over most of the local areas, 3 trail centres within ~20 miles (Ae, Mabie, Dalbeattie) a nice beach 7 miles away, an excellent beach 25 miles away, paddling around all over, Solway Firth for sea/coast, loads of  river and lochs for WW and touring within 30 mins, loads more within a hour. Tweed Valley is a hour away. Glasgow and Edinburgh are a hour away on the train from Lockerbie. Supermarket deliveries cover most of D+G. Here in Fechan, riding really is 200 metres away to the local hill/forest. Work - major hospitals in Dumfries, Carlisle, around 6 other smaller ones within 30 miles.

Downsides. I cant think of many. No NHS dentists. I've just paid £76 for a check up. Limited fresh fruit and veg choice. We’re used to going to a great market on a saturday for F+V, but havent found anything locally (we dont use supermarkets, they probably have a better choice). This one is not a downside, but you can never be in a rush, everyone wants to talk, even the local corner shop can be a half hour visit to pick up a bottle of milk due to people chatting to you. And thats about it, I cant think of any things I dont like so far.

I'd love to be over on the black isle.

I'm an incommer to Dumfries and Galloway. Eventually I'll probably head more north east. 

IIRC nurses earn more in Scotland than England too? Might be role dependant.

Its slightly more at staff nurse grade - but you can also be slightly more taxed than in England.  My last year at work 2 years ago I think I made a couple of hundred a year more overall than I would in England due to both higher pay and paying a wee bit more tax

I don't live in Scotland, so my thoughts may not be useful but I have thought about this a lot and planned it. I'd echo what Matt OAB said. Living in a tiny place in the middle of nowhere has its drawbacks. Who else lives there? Is it all just holiday homes and annoying incomers? If you want to for example go road riding, is there more than one road in and out of the place? I've been to remote places in Scotland and elsewhere that are so remote that there is actually sod all biking on road or off. So yeah I'd go for the small towns mentioned above.

I've been up here about thirty years now and I've seen a few people come and stay, and a few head back south after the first winter. The ones who head back often miss theatres, restaurants and all the trappings of city living. I never liked that stuff anyway so I'm happy as a pig in proverbial. 

I'm a nurse and drive a bit for work but its not like i'm sitting in traffic, and theres plenty of work for nurses.

Matt talks a lot of sense. With kids, I’d be considering decent sized places within easy reach of the nice bits rather than living in the thick of it. Inverness or Perth could be viable options.

Ive been contemplating moving out of Edinburgh now I no longer need to for work.  Peebles would be my first choice for a whole variety of reasons some of which would not apply to you like friends and family but its a good place to live.  Still got a decent high street as they have resisted the big supermarkets coming in.  Property is not too badly priced ( I could swap my 2 bed flat for a 3 bed house).  its big enough that you would rarely need to go to a city and the MTBing around is good.  Highlands is a bit of a trek tho and no train station

OP - where do you live now?

I’ve been to remote places in Scotland and elsewhere that are so remote that there is actually sod all biking on road or off.

That was certainly one reason for us backing out of thoughts of heading to the West Coast.

Was considering Peebles now that I am no longer working, but the rather good new hospital in East Lothian, especially as we have had to use it a lot recently is a good reason to stay, and I like beaches!

+1 for Sunny Dunny - the Tappit Hen is reason alone to live there.

Dumfrieshire gets significantly better weather than the highlands. It can even be noticeably warmer than Edinburgh and dryer than Glasgow.
I quite enjoyed a couple of recent holidays in Ayrshire, very pretty and plenty to do but no big hills.
Borders can be very bleak in the winter, in-laws live there and get snowed in pretty much every year. Obviously great mountain biking but the road cycling is also great.
Fife is actually surprisingly good for cycling, it doesn't really have any big hills though. Some of the little seaside villages are stunning. Cheap too plus there is a train service to most of it. And the view of Edinburgh across the Forth is second to non. It seems to always be sunny when looking across from Edinburgh.
Perthshire is probably the pick of the crop, it's only an hour away from lots of bigger cities/town. Has decent railway connections and has plenty of hills. But picking a bit to live in is hard as the choices are many.
Stirling and Clackmannshire should be considered, no mountains nearby but the Ochilles make for great walking and decent biking. Stirling has good train connections also.
Fort William and Aviemore are both very busy with tourists which would probably put me off, plus they're pretty far North from Edinburgh or Glasgow which I think goes against them even if you don't want to travel to either, but your kids very likely will when they're older.

Bridge of Allan.

Kids is a fair point. Of my friends here, most of them have seen their kids head for the smoke asap once they were old enough. Not everyone wants the redneck lifestyle!

Tbh the lack of decent jobs/decent pay/ housing for young folk is an issue all over the Highlands

Having the kids set off away from home when they're older is surely an advantage?? Mine moved to the metropolis of, err, Crieff.....

Obvious place is Kingussie because of the high school. But obviously housing is limited so where else could I look?<br /><br />

what age are the kids?  How are they likely to feel about the move?  Are they the sort who are out at clubs every night? Or hanging round with friends? Have you thought how that works when the catchment area is 30 mile + diameter.  

Dumfrieshire gets significantly better weather than the highlands

Than the west Highlands maybe but not the east coast.

I’m from north east, Moray, also lived in D and G for a wee while, by hell it’s wet (compared to Moray!).

In Fife now and we’d considered a move back north but the kids are well established at school with clubs/pals all in place - having moved a lot as a young kid I couldn’t move them now.

Crieff was mentioned - I’d second it. We holiday there, plenty of local MTB and easy to get to Perth and Loch Tay area.