[Closed] Raising a family (and riding) in Aberdeen?

@trail_rat 😁

Tons of decent riding nearby, near Cairngorms, some decent villages outside the city. Went to uni there, but not lived there other than that. Brother lives near Old Meldrum, near Inverurie, which seems pretty nice. Lots of nice places to walk, climb and run. I reckon mid travel 29er, so that highlander would be great.

Firstly, do you have a British passport? Will you get in if not when our daft new points based system comes into play?!

Great riding though on Deeside and further east into the Cairngorms, road and MTB. Property prices are above average for Scotland. Can’t see any issues over any other area re your wife’s ethnicity.

Loads of riding

Short of moving to Peebles area I don't think you'll get such a comprehensive and varied riding experiance.

I live on the edge of the city . I'm not going to say much on the city other than that I'm an outsider and don't rate it.

How ever I feel what it lacks in the city is made up for highly by its location and proximity to the eastern Cairngorms and all that brings as well as having trails on the edge of the city and at varying degrees from city out to the Cairngorms. Look up mastermind and heartbreak ridge in ballater on YouTube for example.

Can also ride sweet trails at scolty which is much closer and you have kirkbjll on edge of city to ride without driving dependant on where you live.

How do you plan to get to the university ? -that will determine where you live largely. Not just distance but also routing - for example commuting by bike from Blackburn is a scary prospect- narrow road with rat runners in a rush ...but from westhill there's a cycle path/lanes

Property prices are above average for Scotland

Not sure that's true these days. Due to all the properties continuously being built and the oil industry turmoil prices have tumbled at the top end and in the 3 bed family home stagnated for about 5 years.

The rest of Scotland looks to have near caught up unless your talking about somewhere like cowdwnbeath

She’s finishing her PhD in Geography (GIS/remote sensing) but would likely be unwilling to work for an oil company.

I imagine that might limit her opportunities somewhat in Aberdeen. I often see GIS jobs advertised there, pretty much all of them are oil and gas related

Thanks for all the responses!

Re: shortbread_fanylion: I don't have a British passport, but I don't think the visa would be a huge issue. I have a PhD, am a native English speaker, and would have a standing job offer which would place me in the top rung of most of their earnings categories. Things are obviously changing fast, but the university didn't seem to think it would be a major issue. I had to declare that and send passport scans as part of the process. A good number of the faculty are international.

Re: trail_rat: I'm not sure how I'd get to the university. I haven't gotten quite that far in planning yet. Right now I ride my bike to my current job, but it's a short and pretty easy hop. I'd prefer to have the option to bike/train/walk, but if everything else was perfect in a town but the commute, I wouldn't be against driving.

Thanks again! It sounds like a nice place to live.

Re: ebygomm

I imagine that might limit her opportunities somewhat in Aberdeen. I often see GIS jobs advertised there, pretty much all of them are oil and gas related

That's what I figured. Though was somewhat hopeful both because 1. I read a lot about Aberdeen's hopes to pivot to being a wind generation center as well 2. There are two big universities in town, so she could also look for academic and academic adjacent jobs. Her finding a job she likes is admittedly one of my two bigger concerns though.

Aberdeen is a shitehole, on that budget you'll really struggle not to live in the shitier bits.

Unless your job comes with parking at the uni you might not have an option on driving.

There's plenty places you can cycle to the uni from just don't see a back road and assume it'll be safe to cycle. It probably isn't .

There's plenty of busses but again watch what ones you have. To get as depending on where you live you might have to change busses in town .

Its not a bad place to live. Have lived in much worse 🙂

You’d have to pay me at least double that to even start considering moving to Aberdeen. 😉

Aberdeen is a shitehole, on that budget you’ll really struggle not to live in the shitier bits.

I managed to not live in the shittier bits on a bike shop wage. I'm sure he will be fine.

Did you have kids? Genuinely interested because there are places I lived really happily in my 20s and 30s (Aberdeen included btw) that were awesome but there is no way I would ever consider now with a family.

Would you be renting or buying a house? Rightmove.co.uk is a good website for looking at house prices. Key in the uni postcode and decide how far you want to live away from work.

I do now.

I no longer work in a bike shop
H no
Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting it's a great city.

Its location is tough to match in terms of jobs and property Vs access to spectacular scenery and outdoor activities......(on that note you. Couldn't pay me enough to live in landaccess hell down south)

I mean if I had my way id live in Aviemore but then I'd have to put up with tourists/hiked property and not much jobs for my skillset.

Likewise fort William although properties cheaper and the Cairngorms are further away.

Not best place in world but many worse places to live.

Yeah for sure there are worse places. Got a fair few mates up there, they have a good life but very well funded so getting out to the hills is easy for them (as in having "weekend" flats in Ballater etc).

Thing with Aberdeen is although Ballater is an hour away, there never (to me anyway) seemed like there was much of interest outdoors wise in or on the city limits. Like you could finish work in Edinburgh city centre and go ride up the Pentlands or go for a run up Arthurs seat. In Stirling you could do Dumyat on a long lunch break. Aberdeen has the beach I guess?

Would you be renting or buying a house? Rightmove.co.uk is a good website for looking at house prices. Key in the uni postcode and decide how far you want to live away from work.

I don't totally know. The temptation would be to buy as I have a good amount of money saved up for a downpayment and the dollar is currently pretty strong against the pound. But as it would be a totally new place, it might be smarter to rent for a while, get the feel for its different areas, and then buy. There is a part of me that just wants to get settled, though. I'll take a look at Rightmove.

Regarding the debate about whether Aberdeen is a shithole: I'm not the poshest person. I just want to find somewhere decent enough that a kid can grow up reasonably safely going to reasonably good schools. And where we can get outside. I'd obviously hope that family income wasn't 48k longterm, but it might be around there for the first year or two, so I want to make sure I can get by on that.

If you currently live about 45 minutes from Boston it'll be like moving to a backwater bit of a fairly backwater country. It could be charming and you'll love it, or you there could be a burning when the locals don't warm to your fancy ways and big city ideas.

I'm half an hour south of Aberdoom as it's known and work in the town. Not a hope in hell I will ever live in the city itself. House prices are back on the rise again as oil has stabilised somewhat. I would be very pro Aberdeenshire as a great place to raise kids (my two have lived here all their lives), but not the city itself. It's shite.

If you currently live about 45 minutes from Boston it’ll be like moving to a backwater bit of a fairly backwater country. It could be charming and you’ll love it, or you there could be a burning when the locals don’t warm to your fancy ways and big city ideas.

I currently live an hour and 45 minutes form Boston in a 10,000 person town, though there are lots of neighboring towns so it feels a bit bigger. I've gone to Boston for recreational purposes exactly one time in the six years that I've lived here. In the same period, I've probably driven equal distance to ski/hike/bike 50+ times (and only that few as there is no real reason to drive that long to bike as it's good much closer). I grew up in a very small, rural town 2 hours from anything bigger that is - i suspect - as backwater as anything Scotland has to offer.

Now, I did get overeducated into a few fancy ideas along the way, but I don't think they're big city ideas. If I had my complete pick, I'd be living in the woods near a 1000 person mountain town. My wife isn't really a big city person, but she's also not a complete isolation loving person either, so I'd be more interested in seeing how she liked it.

I’m half an hour south of Aberdoom as it’s known and work in the town. Not a hope in hell I will ever live in the city itself. House prices are back on the rise again as oil has stabilised somewhat. I would be very pro Aberdeenshire as a great place to raise kids (my two have lived here all their lives), but not the city itself. It’s shite.

I wasn't so clear that I'm not at all committed to living within the city. As long as it's a manageable commute, elsewhere in Aberdeenshire is great by me.

All my opinion, but south and west of Aberdeen are the best options if you choose to move outwith the city. Access from the south has been massively helped by the bypass.

I've done alright and so have my family all born and brought up in Aberdeen.

Others must live in some utopia places. Wherever you live you make the most of it.

All my opinion, but south and west of Aberdeen are the best options if you choose to move outwith the city. Access from the south has been massively helped by the bypass.

Thanks, Futureboy77. This was one of the things I was curious about but was having a hard time figuring out from older threads.

Nothing wrong with Aberdeen. Yes it’s a small town but it is very safe to bring up kids. I have three and they all love Aberdeen. Ok Edinburgh and Glasgow have more culture, nightlife and foody places but they aren’t as quiet and safe.

I am from Glasgow and thought Aberdeen was a bit of a backwater when I moved here. Discussed moving with my wife many times but we have agreed that Aberdeen is better for family life than most other cities in Scotland.

As for things to do there are tons of river rafting, surfing, hiking, skiing, climbing options within easy reach.

Being a West Coaster my impressions of Aberdeen are that it takes ages to get there, it’s a lot dryer, and the beaches to the North are amazing, not that you’d want to go for a swim! Great fish and chips.
Being a white native male I have no idea what problems your wife may face, I would hope she would find us a welcoming race but I have nothing to make a comparison for you. Probably showing my own ignorance here but is Indian North American Native or Indian Subcontinent? Just my own curiosity as I’m not up to speed with these terminology’s
Hopefully you and your family will love Scotland.
I do.

I lived in Aberdeenshire (Banchory to be exact) for 10 years until last August, when moved to Australia. I recommend the place to everyone I talk to and would happily go back if I had to.

Aberdeenshire is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The scenery is breathtaking. You have so much greenery and fresh air. It’s impossible to take something like that for granted. If being in the outdoors is your thing then you will love it. Cycling, skiing, walking, sailing, kayaking, surfing..... the list is endless.

I see some negativity in some of the above posts, but unless they raised a family there then take the negative opinion with a pinch of salt. It’s easy to look at Aberdeen from a superficial level and assume it’s all grey and lifeless. To be honest, Aberdeen City is a bit like that, but other than working there you won’t be relying on the City for you or your family. You’ll be living as far out on the edge of the city as you can comfortably commute, so you can take advantage of the aforementioned countryside.

That’s not to say there aren’t negatives to Aberdeenshire. I won’t dwell on them, but a few things to be aware of. It has no real culture to speak of (museums, music or art). Winters are dark and cold. Shopping for clothes or anything like that is pointless - Amazon will be your new shopping centre.

Your salary is going to be a bit low compared to many. It’s an oil and gas city, so a good proportion will be on £70k plus. Ideally I’d recommend looking at Banchory as a place to live as the outdoors is in your doorstep, but that’ll not be affordable for you. Try Westhill or Kingswells. You would need to drive for 15 minutes to find the outdoors, but other than that they are nice new commuter towns. Maybe look at Aboyne as it has the outdoors on your doorstep, a bit more affordable, good schools, but a bit of a commute to the city.

If your wife wants a job she might need to find a different profession or compromise on her beliefs. Everyone there earns money directly or indirectly from oil and gas. If it weren’t for oil & gas Aberdeen would be a tiny fishing village. She won’t have an issue with race, Scottish people are welcoming to everyone. Saying that, it is a predominantly white demographic - I can only think of two non-white kids at our primary school.

I raised three kids in Aberdeenshire, the eldest is 13 now. They have nothing bad to say about their lives so far. My wife is equally in love with the place. We still own a house there and will no doubt come back once the kids have all fled the nest.

P.S. One bike for Aberdeenshire isn’t enough 😀. You’ll want a road, gravel, enduro, marathon and trail bike. Seriously though, I had a Santa Cruz 5010 and it was a decent compromise. Light enough for multi day wilderness trips but with enough suspension for mincing down the downhill tracks on Scolty hill.

Thanks a lot for all of the last few posts. They were really helpful.

Probably showing my own ignorance here but is Indian North American Native or Indian Subcontinent?

She's subcontinental Indian. Usually people say American Indian when meaning Native American here, but not always. It can be a bit confusing and preferred nomenclature of course changes over time. But my wife is of the group you're more likely to run into in the UK. By some quirk of date, my son is fair with blue eyes and light brown hair. Scotland might be one of the few places so pasty that he could add to average pigmentation of his elementary school.

Your salary is going to be a bit low compared to many. It’s an oil and gas city, so a good proportion will be on £70k plus. Ideally I’d recommend looking at Banchory as a place to live as the outdoors is in your doorstep, but that’ll not be affordable for you.

Thanks for the analysis and suggestions! The salary is something that worries me a bit. I currently make "Banchory" money, so this would be a step down there. My current salary isn't permanently sustainable without some changes I don't want to make, but my other options would likely pay a chunk more than U of A. Still, I'm not that money driven if I can hit an ok standard for family life. Plus, I've been the lone earner for the last few years as my wife went back to do her PhD then had our son. If she got a job, then our combined income would be a bit more comfortable.

Also, I like your take on bikes, fanatic.

If they don't offer me the job though, I'm just going to focus on tomd's posts and imagine I dodged a bullet.

If you’re used to Banchory money and aspire to get back to that once your wife gets back into work, then look at renting in Aboyne or Torphins for the first year. You can get your son into a decent primary school in both those villages, and if you ever get a boost in income it’s not too disruptive if you want to move to Banchory. I don’t want to harp on about Banchory too much as everyone has their own opinions, but you’ll find everyone who lives there love it.

If you don’t get the job, then it was a shithole and you dodged a bullet. Plus Massachusetts is a lovely place anyway.

gosh not sure how we managed to live in Aberdeen not being on the "Banchory" wage we are just 2 lowly public sector employees. I must live in a right shit hole part of the city then and got hit by the bullet full square on 🙄

tomd sounds like he has proper grudge against the city for some reason best known himself.

Interesting post and questions @marcusbrody , exciting times, congrats on getting this far.

Trying to get thoughts down in a rational, useful manner. For context, I went to uni in Aberdeen, then lived up there for 6 more years afterwards (most of those in Inverurie - which we still miss). This was 92-02. Also spent 1.5yrs not too long ago based in Lexington, living in Winchester, so not a million miles away from where you might be currently.

I think there are a lot of parallels between Boston and Aberdeen (excepting Boston is a lot bigger!) - Relatively affluent, relatively narrow specialization (boston = pharma), relatively international population, bizarre truly local accents, city on the coast, lots of feeder towns circling the main city in nice countryside. Just on a smaller scale!

I think most have said it already, biking is great, weather cold but drier than most of the rest of Scotland, mountains one way, stunning coast the other (we also miss the Ythan Estuary and Newburgh). Aberdeen is a city, so there are reasonable cultural options, and the other cities are, by US standards, a short drive/train journey away. I would think any of the feeder towns would provide a warm, welcoming and happy place to bring up a family (another vote for Inverurie, perhaps easier to get to BofD and UofA?).

Maybe a few things to be aware of:
It’s a long way north compared to Boston, so in winter, its ****ing dark most of the time. I’m an astronomer so loved it (ADAS is fantastic), my wife really struggled. Conversely, sitting around a fire at midnight in the summer in the dunes at the beach as twighlight turns to the new day is amazing. (But you will need blackout curtains if you ever want your kids to sleep!)

You will not get anything like the heat/humidity of a Boston summer. I would regard that as a positive...

Doric is an impenetrable local dialect, will take you YEARS to tune in. Look for Cabrach Community Radio on facebook to give you a feel. Wecht!

NE folks can be polite but cold initially, careful about making friends. Give it time, once you are ‘in’ you’ll have genuine friends for life. That’s why we miss Inverurie so much.

Limited availability of lobster, but a fish supper from the Ashvale beats Legal seafoods 🙂

HTH!

Sounds like I'll need to go back up and check it out.

No real grudge against the place, just didnt think and don't think it's very good. Did final year of my masters there, got offered a job but decided to move on. Been back on and off through work and friends over the years.

The proximity of the Cairngorms never seemed like a great argument either, when you would be just as close living in Stirling without being so far from everything else.

tomd all that based on one yr in the city 👍

we stayed in Stirling for week we never liked it 🤷‍♂️

I'm not entirely sure people who are from or have spent a long time in an area are the best judges of it either. It just gives you a different perspective. I had to decide between two equally good jobs and one being 500 miles away from Aberdeen was a plus for me. Nothing bad happened to me in Aberdeen, had a good time but in my subjective reality it was a dump. Others clearly feel differently but we'll never agree on whether Aberdeen is objectively amazing or not.

If you go almost anywhere in the UK folk will tell you it's the bees knees.

I’m not entirely sure people who are from or have spent a long time in an area are the best judges of it either.

Living in the city for a year as a student isn’t the most useful reference point for a mid-30s man with wife and kid looking to raise a family there. As a young graduate I had the chance to work in Aberdeen and didn’t even bother turning up for the interview. Fast forward to my mid-30s with one child and another on the way, I jumped at the chance. Aberdeen City isn’t the place to be for a family, but head west and it’s a different experience entirely. And as I said above, loved the place and would go back in a heartbeat.

Different folks and all that. I'm in that demographic myself now and there probably is an amount of money you could pay me to go to Aberdeen bit it's quite a lot. My wife on the other hand, who is not a UK national I don't think could be bribed to go there.

Braemar is probably her favourite outdoorsy place in the UK, but she would point out it is accessible in a direction other than from Aberdeen.

IMO the flood of new developments in Banchory is actually making it a much more affordable place to live... Over 200 + houses on the market there with more building.

Certainly used to be expensive. Not so much anymore.

We were very much in the same position as you when we moved up. Got a little flat in town.... Then moved to Banchory... Then moved further West. Glad we did that, however that's us.

Its a nice part of the world. Don't think you will regret it.. But like us you might not see it as a forever thing.

Banchorys a nice place. I have a lot of friends live there

But when I lived there I found it to be a very narrow demographic of fairly affluent people .

I've ended up in culter where the mix is much wider.

Banchory money? Not sure that's such a thing now. I'm on the lower end of the OP's interview salary range, we bought a 3 bed semi in Banchory nearly 3 years ago with partner in a part time job (which didn't do much more than pay nursery fees at the time). We'd lived in Banchory for a couple of years prior already.

The one house for sale on our road ATM is a 3 bed semi similar to ours, for sale at £190k. Of course there's a lot of grander houses in the area, but there's a lot of decent affordable options! If I drive to work I can be at the office at Aberdeen Harbour in not much more than 30 minutes on a good day. The bad days are few and far between since the AWPR opened. There's a few cycle commute options, including a good off-road track most of the way into the city. Other than work, we don't tend to venture into the city more than once every couple of months.

Love living here with our 3 year old, wouldn't want to live anywhere else right now 🙂

Geez. I didn’t mean to start a Banchory class war!

I have been rightfully corrected that Banchory isn’t out of the question. I did a quick check on the current property market and indeed £180k+ will get you something perfectly nice with a garage for all your bikes. By the way, possibly Rightmove is the correct place to look but historically www.aspc.co.uk is where all Aberdeenshire houses are listed.

Anyway, there are indeed many places other than Banchory to live. If you do get offered a job then we can restart the debate about which village is best (which is Banchory obviously 😉)

I’ve ended up in culter where the mix is much wider.

that because you never hit the banchory pay grade did you. 😉

She won’t have an issue with race, Scottish people are welcoming to everyone.

What a strange statement.

So now there are no bigots in Scotland?

What a strange statement.

So now there are no bigots in Scotland?

It feels like pile on fanatic278 day today. Ok. I shall rephrase. She probably won’t have an issue with race. Scottish people are generally welcoming to everyone.

She probably won’t have an issue with race.

One of the least diverse parts of the UK.

Scottish people are generally welcoming to everyone.

Why would you think they are different from any other group of people?