Oban – should I move there?

Blimey, I’d no idea the rainfall was that different. Twice as wet and less than 100 miles from Glasgow. Mental.

@fossy – 2.5x as much as Manchester…

Well who would have thought it Òban is wetter than Fort William according to that source. Oban annual rainfall 2315mm Fort William 2012mm.

If there was a threat about over rated naff ice cream Janettas would win hands down

The Fusaro Luvian shop on Market st miles better

I know one of the Fusaros. The annual BBQ is a smorgasbord of the delicious luvians treats liquid and frozen. The ice-cream come out in the full cylinder things every time Mrs Vegas to be looks away I have another cone 😀

It’s also something like 9 times wetter there than St Andrews which is on a similar latitude.

On the upside, you won’t be locked in the Mad Max-like battle for water in 20 years, unlike those of us a few hundred miles south…

you won’t be locked in the Mad Max-like battle for water in 20 years,

or alternatively on the downside, you will suffer even more from artic conditions than us in the south, when the Gulf Stream stops.

Just some practical aspects if you’re thinking of moving to the area:

• Long term rental accommodation is almost non-existent due to the demand for holiday rentals. Likewise property prices are above average if you’re looking for a nice location, bit of space, sea views etc. We had our house built – the build took 12 months whilst we lived in a rental in Moray about 4.5hours away.

Employment opportunities are more limited, but there is good demand for teachers, doctors, nurses and the like across the Highlands and Islands. Lots of work in hospitality and retail but not particularly well-paid. Fish farming, forestry are relatively well paid if you enjoy all weathers. Many people have a second job or side-hussle. Rental changeovers/housekeeping can earn you £150-200 for a half day’s work – some folk only work Fridays and Saturdays. Holiday season is April to end October – many businesses shut down over winter or run reduced hours.

I’ve got to know more people here in 3 years than I knew living in a big town in Hampshire for 30+ years. Some folks are initially stand-off to strangers as they see many come and go, but after a while grow to accept you. Absolutely no evidence of any anti-Englishness – my wife is from Kent.

Access to healthcare if needed is surprisingly good, I can get a doctor’s appointment the next day. I recently got a referral for an MRI within a week and a clinical referral a week after – but I do have to travel to Glasgow.

A few folk saying Oban is a dead end.  It’s not.  South to Lochgilphead, north to Fort William.

A few folk saying Oban is a dead end. It’s not. South to Lochgilphead, north to Fort William.

That’s a fair point. I’d describe Lochgilphead and FW as the edges of your guilded Oban cage. A cage I rarely would want to leave if I lived there as it would provide me pretty much everything I’d want. But as has been said, it takes a surprisingly long time to get to say Ullapool or Gairloch from Oban and if you want/need facilities of a bigger place than Oban, it’s back to Glasgow. In comparison to many many places in the top half of Scotland (or indeed the islands) that’s nothing but it’s probably worth remembering if you plan on moving there.

Surprising the OP’s not been back to their own thread – as already said it would be good to know where they are planning to move from, if this is a retirement move or there are job considerations and what leisure activities they’d hope to be part of. It would help to give more useful thoughts.

I’m starting to suspect that some of you are subtly trying to hint that it might sometimes rain in Oban.

I come from the north east. I spent my whole life moving further south: Oxford, London, Brighton, Thailand, Australia … I ended up on Tasmania, and you cannot live much further south than that. Then a couple of years ago I inexplicably moved to Milton Keynes where I still live.
The move north is something we always intended. We’re undecided where to go, and we’re thinking anywhere between Yorkshire, Northumberland and Scotland. Wales isn’t north, but it’s not out of the question. Oban wasn’t on our list, but we enjoyed our stay so we began to consider it.
I’d need to work for a few years (I’m sixty this year), but I’m up for doing pretty much anything to earn my keep.
I’m surprised at people saying there’s not much for cyclists, I’ve seen a load of places that made me wish I had my bike – I’m not expecting Swindon roundabout!

Anyway, the rain stories are putting me off. I don’t mind a bit of rain, but the descriptions make it seem excessive.

So, probably not Oban. Where then? Fort William? (Joke, though for many reasons I do actually have a huge soft spot for Fort William).

A few folk saying Oban is a dead end. It’s not. South to Lochgilphead, north to Fort William.

Aye but describing Oban as convenient access point for the northwest of Scotland then listing those two places as good links…

Where else? Inverness/Aviemore/ Nairn area. Drier. More facilities. Airport. More frequent trains to central belt. Easy drive north south east or west for variety and best weather conditions for a day out.

.Rain? In Nairn it is a third of Oban.

A few folk saying Oban is a dead end.  It’s not.  South to Lochgilphead, north to Fort William.

I also went to high school at Lochgilphead when we stayed down at daltote, south of Achnamara where my mum is from and my gran still lives – I went to Achnamara school which had maybe 15 pupils back then?, we’d all go fishing in the burn at lunchtime or play target practice with our gat guns (.177 pellet guns, you could do more damage with an elastic band. Then we moved to Crinan, mums sister lives in Lochgilphead and my mum goes up to see her quite a bit as she’s got ms and mum always says how rundown it now is, I remember it as quite a busy place back in the early 80’s but I guess that was 40 years ago now. Also used to stay in ardrishag and go to ardrishig primary, I loved the place as I had the sea down the hill from my house and the canal to fish in but I understand that  the town is now even worse than Lochgilphead.

There are loads of wee out the way places that are magical up in that area of Argyll if you explore, such a shame bout the towns I remember being bustling and busy as a kid though.

That’s a common story in Argyll and the Highlands@Somafunk. Mrs Gordimhor often tells me how busy Fort William High Street was and how many good bands played in Fort William during the late 80s -early 90s. I don’t know I was working in the tourist trade in Glencoe and could never get into FW when bands were on.

Yeah, I don’t know what can be done about it as fishing/forestry/farming etc has been increasingly mechanised and all that seems to be left is tourism/hospitality, whilst that may be good for owners of such properties/businesses it often falls to the lowly worker to survive on minimum wage in an area very poorly served by public transport and limited choice of shopping/competitive pricing. I remember Achnamara as kid and all the houses were full of folk that lived/worked in the immediate area and it was a brill wee village, my mum says it’s just my gran, uncle and 3 other families that live their now, all the other 20 odd houses are 2nd homes/holiday lets. All too depressing.

Aye difficult to know what to do A good read here
https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/modus/built-environment/homes-and-communities/ghost-town-effect-of-second-homes-on-communities.html

Ta, yeah a good read but does not take into account the lack of investment /business growth that is becoming increasingly centralised in large urban areas (for the obvious reasons). As business dies off then the cost of living in very rural areas increases which begins a death spiral. Where I live in Galloway is very similar, out of the 25 houses in my mothers street (union st kirkcudbright) there are 14 that are holiday lets/2nd homes/air b& b’s whereas 20 years ago they were all locals. And the folk who bring their massive range rovers/4×4’s to that utter **** with the jacked and wide wheels Ford ranger block the entire street even when parked on the pavement, they just park anywhere without a thought for those that actually live there, boils my piss, boils my mothers piss even more and when she gets off on one at them I can hear it half a mile away – she’s a colquhon tuechter and bloody good at profanities in Scots and Gaelic

I’m surprised at people saying there’s not much for cyclists, I’ve seen a load of places that made me wish I had my bike –

I’ll need to take others word for it on the off-road stuff. On-road there just aren’t that many roads to choose from and most rides are going to include significant chunks on unpleasantly busy main roads.

So, probably not Oban. Where then?

It all depends on exactly what you’re looking for but the Inverness area is pretty good. By Inverness area I mean everything from Nairn in the east to Beauly in the West and Dingwall to the North. Obviously I’m biased here, it being where I’ve lived for the last 16 years.

The weather is good, there’s excellent riding of all types, lots of other activities to choose from, enough facilities and good access to other areas. From Inverness, Aviemore is 40 mins and Torridon 1hr 15min.

I’m sure you’d do this anyway but it’s also worth having a good think about exactly where you want to be and in what kind of house.

Renting for an extended period is probably a good way to suss this out. In retrospect we should have done this as we bought too soon and we’re never 100% happy with the location.

Depending on what you want and where it can take a long time for a suitable property to turn up, there just being fewer of them up here. Also, some areas are very much in demand. Obviously things are easier outside the popular areas but whether that helps will depend on whether or not you’re ok with the reasons why they’re less popular!

Some thoughts on this after our move from Leicester to near to Dumfries. Rain. Oct/Nov/Dec were depressing, it was just so wet. In the English Midlands, we’d typically get 2 or 3 days of rain, then a week without. Here, if we get 3 days dry its a bonus. I was warned about this beforehand, but in reality, its almost depressing when everytime you go out is in full waterproofs.
Work. There are jobs for anyone who wants to work. Some are weekends and eveneings in hospitality etc, but a lot of forestry/wood mills jobs available aroudn here, and Drivers. If you want a driving job, you can get one. Wages are low, typically just above minimum. Standard of life. A big step above life in the Midlands. Traffic is minimal. People actually stop and talk. People are polite and almost everyone is welcoming. Food – a great range of food options all around us. 2 farms that sell their own produce. The only thing that is slightly limited is fresh fruit and veg (we dont use Tescos/Asda etc), though there is one shop 4 miles away who has a decent range, just not the range we used to get in the Midlands.
Where to stay? We originally wnated to move to the Dunkeld area. I still think that area is an excellent place to be. Being too far from elderly parents and (grown up) children swayed us away from there. The Borders was next, but property prices knocked that one back, there were a few decent places with affordable houses, but they sold immediately before we’d put an offer in. So down South to Dumfries and Galloway. We got the place we wanted, prices are reasonable , with some utter bargains around here. The area is really good, not to everyones liking, no big mountains, but lots of hills, for biking, loads of gravel/XC and 3 trail centres locally. But. it’s not the Highlands, so that puts people off living here.

I’ll need to take others word for it on the off-road stuff. On-road there just aren’t that many roads to choose from and most rides are going to include significant chunks on unpleasantly busy main roads.

There’s a good cycle track to Corran Ferry. Not quite all the way to Fort William You have to put up with the A82 for the last few miles. Or cross to Ardgour at Corran for a few miles then get a wee passenger only ferry back across to Fort William . I I cycled on the A82 regularly when I lived in Kinlochleven and worked in Fort William you get used to it

Spin talks a lot of sense IMO. Mrs_oab and I are chatting about a move at some point around Cairngorms / Moray / Inverness / Black Isle area.

We live Dunblane, just outside Stirling. I would say the A9 corridor valley from Stirling to Perth and Dunkeld is also a great place to look. It’s not cheap houses… But that’s for a reason – there’s practicalities such as transport, shops, hospitals etc etc here. There’s a good few employment options. There’s a reasonable number of people. It’s safe and low crime. It’s still a simple drive or train into the big hills, but with amazing quality of green space and nature from your door.

I did three weeks geological mapping in Oban for undergraduate geology, the highlight was using the urinal next to the one Billy Connolly was using mainly to keep himself upright. It wasn’t that wet and it never got properly dark (end of June). The mapping finished I went to work for the NAAFI in Munster which despite being resolutely flat I found a much more interesting, welcoming and lively place.

As others have mentioned when you live somewhere that has high rainfall it isn’t just the amount of water, it is how it seems to go on for weeks on end with no respite. If I was going to live in place like that again I would be super choosy over the aspect of the house, nothing worse than the first sunshine in weeks and your house is in a shady valley.

I find the met office historic data maps show this well, the annual hours of sunshine map has a consistent pattern no matter which year you choose:

If you want North but don’t want a city, Moray Coast, one of the villages on the train line south of Aviemore or similar would be good. Moray has its own microclimate and the weather is often good there when it’s bad everywhere else.

Also, I know you’re not ancient, but at 60 I’d want to be closer to a big hospital and those places have good links to Inverness, which has everything else you’d ever need really as it’s the last outpost.

Deeside is very nice too and with great riding. The closer to Aberdeen you get the less Scottish it feels and there’s no public transport to anywhere else though.

Just to add to the graph above

Just to add to the graph above

We had a week 30 mins inland over the Christmas/New Year break, lovely area but out of the way and biking-wise you’d feel hemmed in IMO.

Certainly wouldn’t fancy road-riding as there are so few of them and the vast majority are main roads.

the highlight was using the urinal next to the one Billy Connolly was using mainly to keep himself upright. It wasn’t that wet

😁 Misread that at first, thought Mr Connolly “s aim was a bit off

We have a plan to move north.

From where?  Lochgiplhead, or Cambeltown – maybe  a good move.  From Dorset- there’s a lot of Scotland to choose from.

We’ve considered lots of places, but at this time Oban seems to tick all the right boxes. I’m on holiday there at this very moment, so I’ve been trying to do pluses and minuses.

Never pick somewhere to live because you enjoyed a holiday there.  Even if you are retired living somewhere and holidaying there are very different things.

So far I have:

Minuses – midges maybe

Only a maybe?  As in maybe there’s midges? or maybe its a minus?  Oban’s not quite as bad as some other places for them but have your spend a week in July/August there with little wind?

I haven’t found a good Thai restaraunt yet

Time to be brutal:  If having a good choice of restaurants in easy access is high up your priority list then Oban is not the place for you.  It has a fair selection of places to eat (some actually quite nice, some not so much – like anywhere else) but in the current economic climate you can’t be sure any of them will still be there, or with the same standard in 12 months.   If you eat out every week – don’t move to Oban.  If you eat out less than once a month then Oban is probably fine, and you’ll find trips to Glasgow/Edinburgh exciting because you can experience different tastes.

Pluses – everything else

You listed the negatives but didn’t actually itemise any positives.

What have I not considered?

Have you got kids?  What age?
Have you got jobs?
Have you got family an 8 hr drive away?
Are any of your family getting old and might need regular visiting?
If its “that” amazing why is it not thriving more?
Do you like to do next day delivery on stuff (theoretically possible but less likely to arrive on time)?
How often have you assumed you will drive to “civilisation” – how often are those journeys time/day critical ie. if the road is closed because of accident, landslide, etc will that cause you health/employment issues etc?  If you are held up in traffic for 30-60 mins is that going to be critical?

Rain. I love the Oban area; my parents lived in Connel for a while and it has so much to offer. But it is wet. Rainfall level differences between where I am now (nairnshire) and there are significant.

I’m less of a fan of rain – but you wouldn’t tempt me to nairn just with sunshine!  Its undeniable that it rains more in Oban than St Andrews or Nairn.  I’m surprised the Glasgow / Oban contrast is as high as people say.  I wonder if mm of rain is the right measurement for perception of rain.  e.g. it could rain 0.5-1mm per day, every day and give you 200mm rain, or it could rain 50-100 mm rain for 2 days each month and that could give you the same total rainfall.   Even if it rained 1mm per day, if that came as one heavy shower, its different from on-off or constant “smirr”.   Perhaps hrs of sunlight (or however we measure clear skies) is actually a better metric?  A grey damp day that looks like it might rain can be more demoralising than sunny showers.

It’s simultaneously got access to amazing places (like the islands) and a bit of a faff to get to.

Thats actually its whole reason for existence.  If it wasn’t for its ferry terminal, and that ferry terminal being in 2.5 hrs from the big city – it would be a small picturesque fishing village.  (Personally, I don’t think Oban is picturesque, but it does look better from sea so I support the suggestion that living there would be better if you have a boat).

It’s not rural as such, just a little out of the way.

You could very easily have “rural” and be very close to Oban if that’s the dream.  (That may be the worst of both worlds!)

Oban itself is obviously pretty well specced for a smallish town, but need anything more and it’s basically Glasgow – airport, a hospital with more than the basics, shops etc.

Its interesting – that’s true of virtually anywhere that isn’t a large city.  My FIL is 25 minute drive outside Edinburgh.  His radiotherapy is not available there and so he has to do 3 trips a week to Glasgow.

Negatives – Oban itself can get a bit overrun with tourists in the peak season.

I don’t think its “that” bad.  Edinburgh is worse!  Cornwall, the isle of wight and the lake district are all worse.

You’ll need a boat if some description!

That will then help with the “lack of mountain biking” everyone is highlighting.  (I don’t really agree with that – there’s not much manufactured trail on your doorstep but there’s plenty of rideable stuff for proper big days on the bike within sensible driving distance)  If your entire râison d’etre is hard core MTB then Oban is probably not the place to be, but if you like the outdoors in general including MTB you could have a much worse base!  Depending what you enjoy a gravel bike (or tourer) would make the accessibility of the islands interesting.

Work. There are jobs for anyone who wants to work. Some are weekends and eveneings in hospitality etc, but a lot of forestry/wood mills jobs available aroudn here, and Drivers. If you want a driving job, you can get one. Wages are low, typically just above minimum.
So down South to Dumfries and Galloway. We got the place we wanted, prices are reasonable , with some utter bargains around here.

Wages are low for locals who cannot afford the house prices on minimum wage yet if you’re moving into the area house prices are reasonable and sometimes an utter bargain.

That’s the issue, not to have a pop at you in anyway but this is only going to get worse for locals. My mate works as a secretary in one of the local property offices, practically every house is sold before going to market as they have so many buyers from outside the area wanting a holiday house etc.

Never pick somewhere to live because you enjoyed a holiday there.

Worst advice on the thread in my case at least. I enjoyed holidays in places I later lived for all but a couple of years of my adult life, and most of the places I hadn’t had holidays in I was soon keen to leave. I would say never pick somewhere to live you haven’t had at least a holiday in.

That’s the issue, not to have a pop at you in anyway but this is only going to get worse for locals. My mate works as a secretary in one of the local property offices, practically every house is sold before going to market as they have so many buyers from outside the area wanting a holiday house etc.

The solution is NOT to stop “inward migration” of people from the midlands who want to work in D&G and contribute to the local ecconomy.    It might not even be to stop holiday homes (without which D&G would be in a worse place).  If you want cheaper housing – you need to build more houses – possibly in areas where “locals” might object.  In a country built on artificial property value wealth – existing home owners aren’t going to be that keen on things which slow their own asset growth.

Never pick somewhere to live because you enjoyed a holiday there.

Worst advice on the thread in my case at least. I enjoyed holidays in places I later lived for all but a couple of years of my adult life, and most of the places I hadn’t had holidays in I was soon keen to leave. I would say never pick somewhere to live you haven’t had at least a holiday in.

The two statements are not mutually exclusive.  I know you don’t live in the UK anymore, but have you forgotten the meaning of the word because?

Worst advice on the thread

I’m willing to bet that you didn’t choose those places because you’d enjoyed a holiday in them. I suspect you liked them when you were on holiday then looked at a whole raft of other things before moving there.

So I think the advice is good.

There are many issues with buy to let holiday homes etc. One is that along with the lack of new build homes they drive locals out of the housing market , and out of the town or village. This creates a problem for employers/ small businesses -as no one can afford to live there ,there is no one to take up the low paid/and or seasonal jobs that are on offer.

One possible solution is to free up more land for housing  but landowners are not keen since they can already make money from the land by other activities or harvesting subsidies and grants.

A whole raft of things become apparent when you holiday in a place. Being entirely sincere, my advice to anyone thinking of moving to a place would be go on holiday there first if you haven’t been already; if you don’t think you’d enjoy a holiday there why do you think you’d enjoy living there?

When we were looking for places to start a business in France, Pau went on the list because I’d enjoyed holidays there even when just passing through. If you look at my list on the other thread it was already my idea of paradise before going into the detail and really the detail probably had less infulence on the choice than the affinity I/we felt for the place.

We were on bikes going from town to town and evaluating the chances of business success along with the lifestyle we’d have. It was a mix of objective and subjective reasoning.

It strikes me as odd that you’d choose not to live somewhere you’d already enjoyed a holiday if you could. If I eliminated everywhere I’ve enjoyed being on holiday I’d eliminate all the places in Europe I could envisage living.

here’s plenty of rideable stuff for proper big days on the bike within sensible driving distance

Having to drive to MTB is the very definition of a place not being good for MTBing.  In places that are actually good for MTBing you can just jump on your bike, ride a short distance and you’re shredding gnar for an hour on a summer evening after work.

That said, there are some blue squiggles on the heatmap right outside Oban and it looks like a good place to get in a quick loop. Not much else for a long way around though, other than Fearnoch which looks rideable.

Yeah, but you can have both. Most folk are going to be limited locally to an hour on a summer evening whereas proper big days might need a bit of travelling. I’m lucky to have both covered without the need to travel. I’m not sure that Oban even has much of the former.