Where to live in Scotland as a Student/apprentice?

Dundee is not grim! It is however very small and doesn’t have the buzz of Glasgow or Edinburgh (I think as a student Glasgow is probably the most fun). I remember the Dundee Uni brochure made much of the fact that Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh are only an hour and a half away so Dundee is perfectly placed to escape to somewhere else!

I would say, as a woman, I have found some of the Glasgow locals by far the most intimidating, but I know people who have been attacked in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen, (though none stabbed) so you just takes your chances

Anyone who has been attacked in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen must be looking for trouble.

I’m not saying the whole place is grim but Menzieshill, Fintry and Harestanes all seemed pretty depressing to me! Esp walking through them at night..
Mind you, that’s not to say that North Muirton, Wester Hailles, Niddrie, Barlarnock and Priesthill are nice at night either!
Trouble can be had in any city, be it in the city centre full of drunken idiots, or in outlying schemes full of jaked-up booze bags at any time of the day or night.

Anyone who has been attacked in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen must be looking for trouble.

Biggest bullshit I will read on here today

Whoosh!

(Try reading it again)

Dundee – regularly voted one of the best and cheapest student cities in the UK and also 20 miles from SSE headquarters in Perth. Small yes, has it’s dubious areas but so do all the others. Ignore TJ.

“Anyone who has been attacked in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen must be looking for trouble.”

Well up to a point. My daughter was robbed at knife point on the Clydeside in the city centre. My son was robbed at knife point in Milngavie – supposedly a leafy suburb. Neither were looking for trouble or had had any contact with the police up to then. Both instances though were late at night at the weekend.

Stick to the west end and busy streets in the city centre then Glasgow is pretty safe anytime. Some parts of the east end and south side are dodgy late at night.

Other than that avoid late night queues at taxi rsnks, getting involved in arguments with drunks in pubs, and avoid wearing Rangers or Celtic colours and the risk is fairly low.

It’s fair to say that the majority of assaults are either gangs or people who know each other though. Random attacks are pretty rare but do happen.

I’ve had to take avoiding action three times when drunks have tried to attack me as I cycled home after a backshift.

I doubt that this middle aged nurse was looking for trouble as she was cycling to work. She was pulled off her bike by a random ned and got a broken wrist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6676223.stm

druidh – Member
Whoosh!

(Try reading it again)

whoosh!

Inverness- great for mountains but as has been pointed out its a long way from anywhere

On a practical basis – if the OP says s/he’s gonna be working on overhead lines, wouldn’t Inverness likely have the largest patch = highest likelihood of a long commute out to the site? Glasgow and Edinburgh would likely have smaller patches – so less commuting – but worse traffic and higher rents?

Does the OP need to own a car?

druidh – oh piss off will you. Your Daily Mail attitude is completely uncalled for. I’m outraged. In fact I’m so outraged I can’t even see that you might have made a funny.

😆

Well up to a point. My daughter was robbed at knife point on the Clydeside in the city centre. My son was robbed at knife point in Milngavie – supposedly a leafy suburb. Neither were looking for trouble or had had any contact with the police up to then. Both instances though were late at night at the weekend.

This is pretty much standard in any city though, and Milngavie isn’t exactly a leafy suburb, especially not certain parts of it. That said, I’ve lived here for 4 years, I’ve walked literally for hours around some of the dodgy places (maryhill, springburn, summerston etc) including pushing £1K’s worth of bike at times, and never even been looked at funny. Sometimes with my other half, usually between the hours of 6pm and 4am. I’ve walked down sauchihall street at 2am when everything is kicking off and if you don’t try to join in you don’t generally get started on either. We did have one minor issue in a pub with some guys who were trying to start something, it was quickly ended by them being knocked on their arse and then dragged out by the bouncers.

druidh, I applaud your skills for making the obvious joke (knew I should have been more pedantic with my syntax) somehow not obvious enough!

muckytee – Member
I have the chance to apply for an apprenticeship scheme

Unlikely to be able to afford staying in a city I would have thought? It is an apprenticeship not uni and unlikely to be able to apply for grants etc?
Needs to tell us where the training college is?
I think when I looked into it many years ago it was in the Kilmarnock area?

If I were applying I would be suggesting Inverness for the following reasons: (1) the number of applicants per place is probably(?) lower as it is remote (2) it is remote not a big city (3) you are going to spend a lot of time doing your job and that might as well be in an interesting part of the world, e.g. the highlands (4) if you are young, free and single with lots of free time the potential for MTB riding is great (5) its friendly, welcoming and mostly a nice place to live.

However, comparing it to your selection criteria other people’s suggestions are probably better.

I’d go with Glasgow, although i’d avoid the east end. The west end and south side are where you’d want to live.

Edinburgh is nice but will be more expensive to live there…if cost of renting (etc) is an issue then i wouldnt discount Paisley entirely. It is basically just a suburb of Glasgow only about 40 minutes cycle from the centre of one to the other or 10 minutes on the train.

Omar Little – Member
i wouldnt discount Paisley entirely. It is basically just a suburb of Glasgow only about 40 minutes cycle from the centre of one to the other or 10 minutes on the train.

Or approximately 15 minutes in an ambulance.

I work in Paisley and would never consider living there.

i wouldnt discount Paisley entirely. It is basically just a suburb of Glasgow

Not quite.

You’ll feel as much as a part of Glasgow by living in Paisley as people in Kabul feel like they are part of Manhattan.

I’d rather live in East Kilbride than Paisley. Consider that.

😉

I work in Paisley and would never consider living there.

This, though not me – my other half. Fairly normal for her town-centre day job to see folk staggering about high as a kite with needles hanging out of them and a colleague recently got stabbed. Paisley is not a place to live, it’s a place to die by the looks of it – either by your own doing or someone elses.

Thank you everyone for your contributions 🙂

You have given me a lot to think about…

Given you a lot to be scared about more likely!!
Bad bits everywhere- esp in Glasgow. Grew up in the east end, aye, there’s dodgy bits but most of it is ok.. North of duke street it’s as nice as anywhere in the west or south, just not as good a concentration of pubs/clubs/west enders!
Guessing it’s maybe a decently paid apprenticeship like Scottish gas do?
Good luck anyway whatever you decide..
Ps, paisley about 8 minutes by Amb from Glasgow- I know this quite well!

Also would be useful to know which training colleges the options are between as that would affect where in Edinburgh and Glasgow you could live.

For Dundee it would probably be Kingsway Campus, which is up the back, so the Ferry and West End are about as far from it as you can get without leaving the town!

Dundee probably covers Angus,
Perth the Central Highlands,
Aberdeen the North East,
Inverness probably pretty much everywhere from Slochd to Cape Wrath.

Lots of time to spend in Landys…

Remember once seeing the linemen out on Morvern sorting out the wires to Mull, they must have been out there all night, we were on the first corran ferry that morning and the first Localine ferry (Which is good going on that road) every now and again a massive flash lighting the early january darkness from within the forests.

On the other hand, and I don’t know if it actually works like this, the upside of having a massive patch might be that you could rack up a zillion hours of overtime.

I’d rather live in East Kilbride than Paisley. Consider that.

Kinell.