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Edinburgh depending what you think is reasonable house prices. Greaqt city you can ride across in under an hour. Beach at portobello 20 min ride from the centre. Pentlands 1/2 hr ride from the centre for some fine XC riding, tweed valley an hours drive. Highlands start an hours drive away. Fantastic beaches in east lothin 20 mins on the train. Finest place in the UK to live
Where’s nobeer when you need him ??.. 😀
Millom
Spitting distance of the Lake District
Mountains nearby
Black Combe on your doorstep
Cheap houses
Great nightlife
All of those places are cold and wet...apart from Purbeck. Love Purbeck, but it ain’t cheap, having said that you don’t get bottle throwing neds on iour stroll to the local thatched roof pub!
Depends what kind of coast you want. Cardiff could fit the bill (often tempted myself, nice place and good location), but it's not going to be sandy beach coast. Though there are beaches along the Welsh coasts, the better stuff is around Devon and Cornwall. However, no mountains, and bit far from civilisation (though Exeter isn't too bad. Couple of hours from S.Wales too).
Don't necessarily need an official "mountain" to have some awesome riding in the UK anyway.
If you want proper big hills/mountains, rocks and loads of fitness on climbing, really Lakes, Peaks and Scotland are the places to go.
Plymouth? Best beaches and coastline in the country.
You can actually go in the sea too.
Got Dartmoor, exmoor close for easy rides, s Wales, BPW, Quantocks all regularly doable in a day.
Plymouth uni, Exeter uni, Falmouth, fx plus and various colleges are available.
House prices are very reasonable as well.
Just don't tell everyone!
Lakes, planty of decent jobs to be had if you can go to the coast or towards the M6
If you actually want mountains, then that rather counts Cardiff or anything in south Wales out then. Hills, yes..
Dundee ticks all the boxes and please ignore the rather odd views of one commentator, who clearly hasn't been in the place anytime in the last ten years. Lively city, ticks all of your boxes and is a very pleasant, educated and cultured place to live. Properly reasonable house prices too and easy access to a huge range of trails that are, crucially, accesible. Unlike some places... Every outdoor sport you can think of nearby, including skiing and ski-touring. Bike packing from the doorstep, superb kayaking and expedition canoeing nearby. Great food, locally grown. Dry climate, by Scottish standards.
I could go on for hours but hey, what do I know. I've just been living here, mostly out of doors, for 30 years...
Though there are beaches along the Welsh coasts, the better stuff is around Devon and Cornwall
Now, I love Devon and especially Cornwall, but there are plenty of Welsh beaches that are their equal.
With regards to Cardiff v Dundee, in my mind you trade, amongst other things -
Cardiff: a lot more rain, hotter summmer, milder winter
Dundee: a winter that lasts 3 or 4 months longer
Nuneaton or Coventry (the city of culture)
Edinburgh's pish.[s]Stevenston[/s]Stinson, boatam end.
Or Troon if you fancy cosying up to Mad Dog Adair. Doonhill up the res, XC in Fully woods, sesh doon Cheekies tae finish.
(Serious suggestion - anywhere north of Helensburgh will probably tick the boxes)
Cardiff: a lot more rain, hotter summmer, milder winter
Dundee: a winter that lasts 3 or 4 months longer
From that I can gather Cardiff winters last about 8-9 months?
Following on from my earlier endorsement for Alnwick in Northumberland ..also worth remembering that just 30 miles down the road is one of the world's great cities ..
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/travel-tourism/newcastle-named-worlds-number-one-14008459
Disclaimer : To my knowledge I am in no way related to the author of the article featured above ..the fact that we share the same surname is purely coincidental 😀
Dundee ticks all the boxes and please ignore the rather odd views of one commentator, who clearly hasn't been in the place anytime in the last ten years.
Born, raised and lived there until fairly recently. Still return a couple of times a year to visit family.
Comments were slightly tongue in cheek but seriously, it is a good place for outdoor activities. You can be in the hills in a matter of minutes depending on where in the city you are.
North and east of the city are better. The Ferry, Barnhill and Forthill are nicer. Monifieth is ok but in Angus rather than Tayside. Avoid Douglas, Fintry, Mill o' Mains like the plague. Lochee and and the Perth road are OK for convenience and nightlife but lots of tenements and terrace houses so if you want a decent size garden look else where in the city.
It does have a pretty crap city centre though and there are very few good restaurants. They are trying to sort it out with things like the V&A and new swimming pool etc but they are disjointed with pretty manky areas and streets to pass through to get between the nicer bits of the centre. Broughty ferry beach is nice but bloody cold all bar about a month of the year. And there really are a million Tesco; more than any other city in the UK if I remember the article in the Courier correctly.
If you can sacrifice a 30 min drive to the beach then Perth would be much better. Or as Scotroutes says Inverness.
The people recommending places in the Highlands are forgetting the IT job requirement. Even Dundee to be honest.
Millom! hahahaha.
Unless that is some sort of tech wizardry and the joke is on me..... then I am surprised to say the STW are telling us whats good or bad to read.
It’s a case of STW not allowing a click through from here as they want no association with the hateful paper.
Anyway Alnwick is pretty nice but the fun can be sucked out of you.
The people recommending places in the Highlands are forgetting the IT job requirement. Even Dundee to be honest.
Dundee is the centre for computer game development in the UK to be fair. Plenty of IT companies there.
Yes but there's IT and IT. Game development is very different to say enterprise IT. But if he's just looking after someone's corporate network then there are far more opportunities.
Scotland ?..you may wish to re-think..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/07/scottish-businesses-warn-nicola-sturgeon-could-take-years-repair/
Yes but there's IT and IT. Game development is very different to say enterprise IT. But if he's just looking after someone's corporate network then there are far more opportunities.
Infrastructure/network management.
There is NCR who design and manage the cash machine network and then there is .....
Tesco who manage all their IT out of the Dundee call centre
Not all Tesco IT is in Dundee... I've been to a Tesco IT centre that wasn't there.
Barmouth.
gauss1777 - Member
Though there are beaches along the Welsh coasts, the better stuff is around Devon and Cornwall.
The better stuff is in DEVON?
You haven't travelled much in Wales, have you? I can take you to a dozen beaches within a ride of my house in Swansea that are better than anything in south Devon and as good, if not better, than north Devon.
Then we could jump in the car and head to Pembrokedshire. Or Cardigan bay. Or the Lleyn peninsular.
One thing Wales doesn't lack is a good beach. Or castles. 🙂
Barmouth.
IT jobs in Barmouth?
IT could be almost anything. Most folk I know who work in IT for larger organizations work from home.
Fat biked to work this morning into central Dundee; 1.5 hour ride, started in the dark then up and over the Sidlaws. Frozen ground with a good dusting of new snow. Will make an effort to get away sharpish this afternoon, return ride and a fireside waiting. Happy days...
Most folk I know who work in IT for larger organizations work from home.
Most folk I know who work for large IT (which is a lot) work from the office 🙂
I'd like to be able to WFH and live in Scotland, but it's not an easy gig to get. You usually have to somehow make yourself indispensable before they'll let you do it.
I'd like to be able to WFH and live in Scotland, but it's not an easy gig to get.
Get yourself up here - plenty of dev contractor jobs around for those with relevant experience and willing to take the plunge.
trailwagger - MemberThe wife and I are thinking of moving. She wants to live by the coast, I want live in the mountains.
Any suggestions on uk towns to provide
Near coast
Near mountains (or at least good trails)
Good Job opportunities
Good education.
It's probably too left of field but if you're willing to hop across the Irish sea you could do a lot worse than South Down. Brilliant trails everywhere, vibrant mountain biking scene, great hiking (nothing massive but still good), on the coast and property is no doubt much cheaper than England, Scotland, Wales. Can't speak to the IT industry or education though.
Barnet - cheaper housing but close to London for jobs and some good private schools/grammars.
Is that Barnet on Mars? Here on planet Earth I don't think Barnet fits the bill of what the OP is looking for.Frankenstein - MemberBarnet - cheaper housing but close to London for jobs and some good private schools/grammars.
Bottom line, though, is that it doesn't matter what we say because your missus is in the driving seat (plus ca change). Wanting to live by the sea is common enough that millions do this in the UK. Wanting to live IN the mountains, OTOH, is obv unusual in the UK and very few people do this. That means that living 30-60 mins away from the mountains is prob fine, but a similar distance from the sea is completely unreasonable.
@IdleJon, I was saying the same thing as you, the quote was from someone else.
Britain has many, many wonderful beaches.
Sorry gauss - cut and paste fail!