[Closed] Where shall we live?

Standard answer = Sheffield

Bethesda

Commute every day or 2,3 days a week? What's your commute time aim?

Live in Kendal, commute to Lancaster.

Where you get a job at, surely?

/Broken record

If not, Stirling/BofA/Dunblane is the answer.

(Then you can ride at lunchtime on uni property)

/BrokenRecordOff

Lancaster, Bangor (Wales), Sheffield, Buxton, Durham all have unis or a campus and riding nearby

Anywhere in the UK, that’s it!

Maybe not Scotland, if thinking long term. 🙂

Live in FoD and commute to UWE (now that the bridges are free in both directions). Lots of other riding within an hour or so. Good road riding (especially out into Herefordshire), provided you like hills.

The time and cost required to commute into Edinburgh for a job that is challenging enough just doesn’t tally up despite wanting to be able to ride yair after work of an evening.

The train is an hour each way and circa £20 return or you've an 80 mile around trip (and parking) into a city centre. How much cash/time are you wanting to spend?

I'm near Melrose and work (pre-lockdown) in the west of Edinburgh - so well aware.

As previously said, surely it's where a job is available?

It also depends where you want to live ie remote or city. Based on places similar to the tweed valley in terms of facilities and remoteness, I'd say Bangor or Aberystwyth. If you want to be closer to bigger city universities, then I'd say Sheffield, Swansea or Cardiff.

But, as in stw tradition - recommend where you live, I'd say Sheffield. Two big universities, amazing riding, social scene and rural locations close to the city.

Aberystwyth is lovely but tiny with poor infrastructure.

If you lecture then there's no escape from the students unless you go out of town for your pint/meal/coffee (I know someone who worked there for 5 years)

oldtennisshoes
Full Member
Bethesda

Twinned with Fallujah... 😉

Herriot Watt, Galashiels to Yair, Galashiels is not far.

https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/scottish-borders.htm

Glasgow Uni at Dumfries.
UWS at Dumfries.

Stirling Uni at Stirling, is probably the answer.

Northern Peak District for Sheffield/Manchester unis.

Matlock or Amber Valley just below for Nottingham/Derby unis

What @martinhutch said.

I like Stirling area, but mainly because it's really central for getting to other places, the riding is decent, but not 'fantastic' IMO.

Leeds / Bradford very good universities and brilliant riding

Particularly Baildon, Bingley , Guiseley way.

Just the traffic, pollution, crime isn’t great

I wasn’t a fan of living in Sheffield, but I was in Hillsbrough. Just a faff to get to the riding

We have moved from that area to Shropshire. I really miss the MTB stuff.

Anywhere in the South of Edinburgh. Bonaly, Currie, Balerno. All next to Heriot Watt and 20/ 30 mins from Peebles while being on the edge of the Pentlands.

Inverness and surrounding area but South/West Edinburgh is a good call.

^ what he said

Sheffield would work with stereo Uni's

Teeside University. You could easily live in the North York Moors. My mate works in the Hospital in Middlesborough and claims it's the closest in England to a national park. But he might be wrong

Inverness and surrounding area

Aviemore to Inverness is only 40 minutes, and every chance of a few snow days!

I'll do the standard STW thing and recommend what we did and say Galashiels or Tweedbank.
Both have trainstations that'll take you to Edinburgh.
Also close enough to Yair to ride there in half an hour.
With the added bonus of there being quite a few trails in the local woods and miles and miles of XC type hill riding.

Both have trainstations that’ll take you to Edinburgh.

How much longer to travel to Riccarton from Waverley?

. My mate works in the Hospital in Middlesborough and claims it’s the closest in England to a national park. But he might be wrong

Hospital or uni? Westmorland General in Kendal is about a mile from the national park boundary...

Sheffield uni (and hospital) has to be closer to the park edge than that, as well..

I biased because I am Sheffield born and bred but honestly I wouldn't live anywhere else even given the choice.

I live north Sheffield and to the eye it looks a pretty built up area; Hillsborough stadium a 2k down the road, the main Sheffield Uni about 4-5k away and then into town. But, I can walk from my doorstep and within a 800m walk I am essentially in the countryside and wouldn't have to hit civilisation proper until I hit Manchester or beyond. In fact I can pick up the TPT within 1k. Did a 12k round walk the other day and was on roads for less than 1500m.

Greno and Wharncliffe woods (Steve Peat's original stomping grounds) are 3k up the road and again carry on as far as you like from there out into the Peaks. Road riding is as good as the trails and again in not much time at all you are off the main roads and out onto the good stuff.

And then you have all the conveniences of living in an actual city too but with friendly folk and plenty to do when the pubs, clubs and shops re-open.

I live in Sheffield and work at the uni. Happy to chat privately if you want to know about the uni or surrounding area.

Sheffield would work with stereo Uni’s

There's only one university in Sheffield, and then there's that other Hallamshire Poly thing... 😉

Twinned with Fallujah… 😉

The atmosphere always reminds me of the build up to The Gun Fight at the OK Corral

Peebles is 20 min from Edinburgh. Nowhere in the Tweed valley is a bad commute to Edinburgh really.

Prices tumble once you get to Penicuik / Gorebidge .

Richie_B
Full Member
Twinned with Fallujah… 😉
The atmosphere always reminds me of the build up to The Gun Fight at the OK Corral

🤣

Bethesda 🤣🤣

Although my favourite answer on one of these type thread recently was Stockport! Plenty of unis neaby in Manchester, not so sure that I'd fancy living in Stockport like!

The atmosphere always reminds me of the build up to The Gun Fight at the OK Corral

Yes, not a very welcoming place....

brads
Full Member

Peebles is 20 min from Edinburgh. Nowhere in the Tweed valley is a bad commute to Edinburgh really.

By helicopter? It's 22 miles centre > centre

Peebles is 20 min from Edinburgh.

Well, it's 20 mins to the bypass, outside of commuting hours.

By helicopter? It’s 22 miles centre > centre

Motorbike lol. Travel from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the city centre cannot be measured. It's a ballache minefield that is different every day and I'd rather sacrifice a ball that have to do it.

I meant this.

Well, it’s 20 mins to the bypass,

I suppose a bit more if Penicuik is busy, but it's still hardly a bad commute.

Well, it’s 20 mins to the bypass, outside of commuting hours.

And at least the same again to get into the uni area.

Nowhere in the Tweed valley is a bad commute to Edinburgh really.

Probably not when you consider some of the commutes in SE England. My BiL commutes from Gattonside to Edinburgh, it's not a commute I'd want to have to do tbh.

As noted above, if you want Tweed Valley riding but a quicker than 45-60min commute then you might want to be looking at Mid Lothian. Somewhere like Gorebridge gives you quick access to the City, quick access to Tweed Valley and good valley housing. The compromise, and there is always a compromise, is a lack of riding from the door.

despite wanting to be able to ride yair after work of an evening

I commute home through Yair. Doesn't help, just thought i would mention it:-D
.
Used to commute to Edinburgh, I'm just north of Galashiels. 26 miles of mostly the A7 and it was quicker by bike than by car, anything passed Newtongange is a nightmare at rush hour.
If you can WFH a lot or do weird hours and miss rush hour or get a job at Herriot Watt in Gala then go for it, lovely place to live

Depends what you're tolerance for commuting is really. As mentioned above commuting from the Borders is fine until you get near the bypass then it grinds to a crawl. Bus services are pretty good and we have a train station option. If I'm going to the valley after work it takes 45-60 mins to get from Blackford/The Grange to Glentress. I live in Newtongrange, I like being relatively close to the city for work, socialising, kids activities etc. In normal times my son is at the Commie pool 6 days a week so living in the valley would be irrelevant as I'd have no time for riding. I grew up in the Borders and I'm sure it's better now and Peebles is it's own wee world but it can be a bit claustrophobic. I have pretty good xc riding from the door in all directions although the woods are pretty muddy just now and there are some nice quiet roads if that's also your thing. Had some really good wintery rides in the Pentlands recently and they're only ten minutes drive or 40 mins on the bike.

Peebles is not 20 mins from Edinburgh. You could get to Penicuik in that time, but driving to central Edinburgh is anything from 45mins in the middle of the night to three hours when it rains on a Friday during the Festival and there is an incident on the bypass.

You could get ti Penicuik in 20 mins, the only drawback there is that you will be in Penicuik.

South West London; Epsom, Kingston, Wimbledon that sort of way.

Motorbike lol. Travel from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the city centre cannot be measured. It’s a ballache minefield that is different every day and I’d rather sacrifice a ball that have to do it.

A bit of a daft claim it's only 20 minutes if the endpoint of the commute is not the destination. So you need to be Peebles to Riccarton, Peebles to Craiglockart, Peebles to Kings Buildings. None of those are particularly reliable journeys, and I'd not choose to do that every day.

However, I think MOAB has the right answer - surely if you have a restriction on working only for a University you have to find the job first, then you work out where to live? He's also right though that Stirling is an obvious choice if the work lines up. Heriot Watt had a lot of staff who could cycle from their front door to the Pentlands, and if you want more unusual then there will be good riding close to many of the UH&I campuses.

Maybe not Scotland, if thinking long term. 🙂

I think there's some sense in that comment! IF you would be very concerned about Scotland spending the next 3-4 years arguing about independence referenda or horrified if we were to leave the UK then you need to have a pause for thought. The arguments about referenda are virtually guaranteed. Some sort of referendum is very likely. Its a bit of a coin toss which way that could end up. If you don't really care - then you'll be very welcome.

Dundee. 2 x Unis in town and another nearby, just over the water.
Sidlaws / Ballo / Lundie / Dunkeld / Kinnoull for neighbourly riding.
Live to the NW of town for easy access & exit. Better access from the city to proper mountain riding than anywhere else in the UK, with the possible exception of Inverness.
Potential for return to the EU in the medium term.