Well living in Stirling, i’d probably recommend…Stirling.
Central Scotland, as others have said, so close to all airports and the big two major cities. The property prices are also good, and you can get a spread of a place for about half of what it would cost in Edinburgh or the borders etc.
The biking is sublime – we are properly spoilt for trails on our doorstep. There is a smattering of actual trail centres nearby (carron valley 15mins, Comrie 30mins, Glentress 1hr etc…), but its more for the natural, rooty goodness all around us (cambu, n3, dumyat, mine woods, Glen Ssshhhh, Dollar, even Aberfoyle etc). There’s also loads of family paced forest type gravel stuff (trossachs, Callendar etc). Have a look on trailforks, there is stuff everywhere.
The biking community is also super active – you either meet people on the trails, or there are a couple of facebook groups who have gotten very organised and have rides heading out 3-4 times a week, and have a presence at most scottish races.
In terms of dark sky, I know that Carron Valley started opening the car park up later into the night to let in the astronomers, as the dark skies are meant to be pretty good. i have no personal experience of that though.
There are plenty of active scouts, guides, rainbow troops also, and there are some pretty decent schools ranging from good modern states, to Dollar Academy if you prefer the finer things.
If you like easy access to the outdoors whilst maintaining a connection to the urban life, its a pretty decent location to be in.
