Assume he meant Inverness?

You’ll be doing well to get from forres to Aberdeen in 25 minutes.

You might manage it on new years day…

Not taking biking into account, I really like Glenshee/ Braemar area, i like the solitude and lack of people. And all the deer and fungus! I also spent a week near Fearnmore on the West coast, loved it there but the weather was shite, but no more shite than Wales’ West Coast. Snow in November made up for it though, as does the night sky, when you do get a glimpse. That would make the extra hassle of travelling 14 miles to the nearest shop worth it, in my book.
I cant think why someone would move to Scotland and not take advantage of the riches you can only get there, like the sheer scale of mountains and low pop density outside of the big cities, but thats just me, im very solitary by nature.
Mate ,I wish I had the option to go, but my trade and family ties keeps me grumbling in the (warm) rain for a few years yet. Good luck with wherever you choose.

Edinburgh has a lot of advantages. Big enough to have all the facilities of a city. Small enough to ride out of in half an hour. Out of the door riding you have the pentlands and a few other bits. Good access for trains.

Its ruddy expensive as a city. The Edinburgh suburbs are pretty soulless imo. Forme living car free its a very good compromise

Doh. Yes, Inverness 🤦

A house like that, and no proper garage. Jeez…

Think outside the box, convert a room into an internal workshop.

Edinburgh has a lot of advantages. Big enough to have all the facilities of a city. Small enough to ride out of in half an hour. Out of the door riding you have the pentlands and a few other bits. Good access for trains.

Its ruddy expensive as a city. The Edinburgh suburbs are pretty soulless imo. Forme living car free its a very good compromise

Would concur with all of this. We love the benefits of city living but also being able to escape to the countryside and Edinburgh is brilliant for that, we are pretty central but 20 minutes from my door and I am in the Pentlands, within half an hour in the car you can be in the Tweed Valley or on a beach in East Lothian. Even if you just want to go for an hour long blast on the road bike you can piece together a decent route with minimal traffic without leaving the confines of the city. The city is safe and plenty green space and activities for the kids.

Cost can be an issue, and we have definitely made an active decision to compromise on living space for location, but it doesn’t feel quite so bad having been in the city for so long so we don’t know any different, and although we will pay an eye watering price when we move house, we’ll also get an eye watering price for what we already have. MUCH harder though if you are coming into the city from a cheaper area.

Wow that Kirkcudbright house is a hell of an eyesore, but as importantly, we’d probably be looking for less of a house. I’ve never been that keen on seaside living, perhaps scarred by Ayr but also it cuts out half the directions for cycling/running! It would be different if I was a keen swimmer or sailor perhaps.

Yeah, we concluded that a move to the West Coast would necessitate buying a boat. It’s also noticeable that there are a lot fewer MTB and road cycling options.

I’ve lived in Edinburgh, Inverness and the tweed valley.

Edinburgh – cons were noisy, polluted, awful traffic, very very expensive housing, difficult to ride or run anywhere interesting direct from the door (except for running in holyrood park, I found the pentlands pretty dull), I also found it _really_ unfriendly after moving there from yorkshire. Pros were good restaurants/cafes (presumably good retail opportunities but thats not really my thing), good public transport.

Inverness – Pros – good road cycling (car drivers weirdly seem to be more respectful to cyclists there), easy access to lots of amazing places (even just using public transport), friendly place, loads of other folk into the outdoors, affordable housing. Cons – it’s really far away from my family, everything in the supermarket or even online is more expensive, (you often have to pay extra for delivery with an IV postcode), I found the local area (say within about 20 miles of Inverness) a bit flat and uninspiring.

Tweed valley – Pros – amazing running, cycling, MTB, etc. from the doorstep, friendly, housing is affordable (although not cheap), lots of cool festivals like Tweedlove, EWS, etc. Cons – public transport is a bit iffy, gets super busy in the summer, no rock climbing (or indoor climbing) locally, the highlands are further away.

Midgies are far less of a problem in the eastern strip from eastern Perthshire through Angus, Deeside/Aberdeenshire and Moray. We’ve none at all here in our garden in the middle of a farm & woodlands. I live out to the north of Dundee as it fits a huge range of priorities and options.
MTB in the Dee valley is better (in my humble view) than the Tweed valley, which is a bit too samey, ‘winch & plunge’. We have lots of different styles of trail and some really challenging mountain days close by; xc from the doorstep and an easy ride from the door up into the Sidlaws or west to Lundie.
Road riding across all of these areas is superb; Angus roads are in generally very good condition. Easy access to steeper riding at Ballo/Dunkeld/ Pitlochry/ Aberfeldy, when it’s time for that. Lundie, Sidlaws, Pitfichie, Drumtochty, Scolty all close by. Aboyne, Ballater & Braemar- Amazing trail building community scene and proper mountain riding in the eastern Gorms can easily give a week of solid big mountain days out. Ben Alder, the Feshie munros for contrast; Trossachs, Badger Divide or An Turas Mor for epic gravel… I could go on for hours. A few hours drive and you’re in Kintail or Torridon.
Running: the Scottish ultra marathon & trail scene is really vibrant at every level, many international runners choosing to live here. Annual West Highland way race is a world class event that’s also really inclusive.
Snowsports: Glenshee and associated backcountry is probably the best balance across the country, in terms of weather, snow cover and epic backcountry touring as well as a good selection of lift served..
Watersports: what’s your poison? Sea kayaking; steep spate rivers; Canadian canoes in lochs & big rivers for expeditions..? Swimming in clean lochs & rivers..?
Dundee has a really positive outlook these days, culture, education and development. Mainline trains to Glasgow, Edinburgh & Aberdeen; flights to London.
What are you waiting for?

Moved to Glasgow 5 years ago, great city to live in, amazing access to hills and alot cheaper than Edinburgh.

This says it all really:
https://johntdata.silvrback.com/glasgow-vs-edinburgh-which-city-is-better-for-munro-bagging

MTB in the Dee valley is better (in my humble view) than the Tweed valley, which is a bit too samey, ‘winch & plunge’. We have lots of different styles of trail and some really challenging mountain days close by; xc from the doorstep and an easy ride from the door up into the Sidlaws or west to Lundie.

That’s a bold statement… Do you mean local riding, ie from the door/within a 20 min drive is better than the tweed valley, or do you mean riding in the general area (so including dunkeld/aberfeldy/pitlochry plus the several Munro’s close by, plus the southern bit of the Cairngorms) is better?

If you lived in any of the tweed valley towns, you’ve got about 6 or 7 trail areas within cycling distance, with everything from blue flow trails to EWS level enduro trails.

The former statement I’d agree with, if you include riding within a 30 mile area then it’s far better than the tweed valley – but I’m interested to know if the local riding is up to the same level.

I know that steep forests really work for a lot of riders. Whilst I enjoy the occasional day at Golfie or Inners, I prefer to mix up my riding with all sorts of other days out, especially mountain rides so for me I’m happier with the variety of being close to Dunkeld, the southern Gorms munros, the Angus Glens & all the Drumtochty/ HBR type riding you could possibly wish for. Going out into the hills is an important part of my riding, much the same as while I do enjoy a day of lift served skiing, I’m happier on a long tour that might take in some summits and some steep gully skiing too. Hope that makes sense and explains why I think that while there’s a huge choice of steep woodland trails in the Tweed valley, I find it all a bit samey and would find living there restrictive. Love it when I’m there but it’s not my personal, first choice of how to spend a day on the bike. Does that make sense? Give me a day on Big MacDhui, Bhuird, Lochnagar or Ben Avon. Tour de Cairngorms bikepacking..
Road bike? Deeside circuit from here; 125 or so miles round, usually done anti-clockwise so east to Edzell, up over the Cairn o Mount, south Deeside to Braemar, up over the Glenshee ski road and a wee sting in the tail, the Drumderg road back to GlenIsla to pass Alyth on the way back to the house.
We’re utterly spoilt for choices up here in Angus and I’ve not even mentioned the trails at nearby Kinnoul, Fife, Pitmedden or the Ochils yet… plus Tentsmuir for shelter in the winter and watching sea eagles.

gets super busy in the summer

I find it really weird you say this about the tweed valley but you don’t mention AUGUST in Edinburgh being the worst 4 weeks in the world to live somewhere.

I can’t say i really notice it being that busy in the tweed valley despite livign on one of the main routes in the peebles/inners section

Moved to Glasgow 5 years ago, great city to live in, amazing access to hills and alot cheaper more pleasnt/fun/friendly/interesting than Edinburgh.

takes your pick, I would happily move back to Glasgow if city living was required. Edinburgh is great but its nowhere near as great as Glasgow and doesn’t quite draw me back like Glasgow does.

Yep Aberdeenshire would get my vote. Fantastic place, everything any decent human could ever want, big mountains, solitude, world class locally built MTB trails all over the place, coast, international airport, large city nearby if thats your thing etc etc. As above Ballater or Braemar and most of the Dee Valley would get my vote.

I’m surprised at the love for Braemar. I mean, I really like the place – for a weekend away. We go 2 or 3 times every year, but I can’t imagine living there.

Just for reference:
Riders in Stirling and surrounding areas have been quiet on this thread because they’ve been too busy riding bikes.

Think about it 😉

In summary then:
Priorities may lead your choices in a particular direction; all the areas described below have access to great trails, most have other advantages too, like snowsports, watersports or grerat road riding. There are great restaurants everywhere and artisan food suppliers in every county.
There’s a lot of good places to base yourself, starting from the Tweed valley, via Stirlingshire, the Trossachs, Perthshire, Angus, Aberdeenshire all the way to Moray and the lower Spey valley.
Further west gets progressively wetter and midgier. Braemar is a bit higher and colder than the rest of Deeside; Newtonmore is similar in the Spey.
Deep into the Highlands restricts options for road rides but increases access to high mountain rides, although more so in the eastern ranges.
Remoter settings mean smaller communities and having to adapt to shopping for food supplies with some planning.
All of the cities have a decent vibe and culture along with their obvious disadvantages.
Almost everyone who lives in Scotland rates being here highly or very highly; the politics is also a fair bit to the left of Westmonster and the current government here has a clear social conscience. Not perfect, just one hell of a lot better than that collection of self-serving cockwombles in the south.

I would say that Banchory would suit all needs. Scolty/Bogendreip/Hill o’ Fare on your doorstep, Upper Deeside 15/30 minutes away, as is Drumtochty. Cairngorms less than an hour and all the quiet roads you can handle. Near to Aberdeen, easy access to airport and road network south, lots of amenities in the town and Aberdeen is only 20/25 minutes to the East and there is a good bus service that can get you home from a night out quite happily.
The weather is pretty decent in Deeside, can be cold but dry trails are certainly not uncommon and there is a wide variety of riding.

It’s great to hear a lot of people making the most of their local areas. I’ve lived in enough places to know you can cut your cloth according to what’s available and am sure we could enjoy a number of the options. But OTOH we had an entirely free choice when we returned to the UK from living abroad, and did manage to pick a fantastic location already which I haven’t regretted for a second. Maybe a change would be good for us at some point. 10y in one place seems a long time to me, I’ve previously felt ready to move at that point (roughly).

I guess we will revisit as remaining parents pop off. Realistically, we aren’t likely to move imminently with an ageing FiL just 30 mins away right now.