When people say they live “rural”, what do you envision?

I live in the middle of a small Scottish lowland village in a very old stone cottage. We have plenty of nice neighbours, a pub, a village shop and tearoom and a small primary school, but are literally surrounded by woods and fields and farmhouses. My view from the room where I'm typing this is of a few equally old slate roofed cottages, lots of trees and a farmhouse with a red barn on a hill. Most of the fields around the village have cows in them. So yes - I'd call it rural. But not the middle of nowhere! In winter, we can see the Northern Lights, because we don't have too much light pollution. Crime is minimal, the kids mostly know each other and everyone knows them. We lock our doors at night, but not in the daytime. The milkman delivers milk twice a week and leaves it on the doorstep.

To me, that's living NEAR it, not in it.

YES

I really grew up proper proper "rural" but I never conversationally say that. I use other descriptors like the landscape, the agriculture, or I might say something like I grew up a X mile 4x4 drive to the nearest primary school, or where I grew up the nearest neighbour was , depending on the conversation/ context

The ones that I think are lying, don't think they're lying. They really think they're living it

Even though they can pop out for milk at 9pm if they run out

I'm trying really hard to classify where I live after reading all these 😆. I'd struggle to say we were very urban but definitely not rural!

Owls and occasional deer in the woods across the road.

Can hear the sheep and cows in the farm half a mile away if the wind is right and smell the slurry when the farmer lays it.

Can easily walk into lovely countryside, which is classified as an AONB.

2 miles from the nearest market town, 20 minute drive to nearest big towns.

But on the flip side, we have a small supermarket, 2 pubs, corner shops and post office, couple of bakeries, coffee shop, Italian deli and a fair few restaurants. Away from food we also have a drs surgery, two dentists, library, 2 primary schools, one secondary school, two hairdressers, various nail places and a couple of charity shops. Also has a tube/train station and plenty of buses.

I love where we live - just wish it was near a beach 😆

Personally I wouldn’t consider that rural . I would say in a village

Also, I would always say 'I grew up on a farm' or 'I grew up on an island' rather than 'I grew up rurally', that seems a rather urban way of categorising people.

I grew up on a farm on an island in Scotland. I went to school in a town with a population of ~2000 people. It always makes me laugh when I realise people on here call themselves 'rural' when they live in sizeable 'villages' that are larger than that town.

I think of friends who lived down a tiny, steep lane (grass growing down the middle!) in rural N Devon. They needed the car for everything - a 10 minute drive to any shop, and quite a bit further for a supermarket, GP, etc. They needed the car even to take their dogs anywhere they could let them off the lead - sheep in the fields, etc.
Ironically it was far easier for them to walk the dogs when staying with us in outer SW London, admittedly close to a large park.

Staying with them now and then was lovely, but it cured me of ever wanting to live rurally!

Interestingly The Daily Telegraph described a village where 2 ponies that were found after been stolen from the New Forest a rural area in a London borough by the M25.
They were found down a farm lane where there’s a dairy farm and livery yard. But on the edge of the village and by a well known heart hospital. It’s also a few miles inside the m25 and near ancient woodland

I am definitely rural. I think some people think 'remote' when others say they live rurally. You don't have to live in the middle of a field, 5 miles from your nearest neighbour, or 10 miles from the nearest A or B road to be 'rural.' (Or have a cesspit, and no mains gas supply.)

I live in a small village that has around 230-ish residents, around 100 properties, 1 pub, 1 church, and a village hall. No shops, no public transport. 4 miles from a market town (or 2.5 miles along the canal path if you want to walk or cycle.) And a river running not far away with some nice walks, and woodlands to walk around. Some lovely views too. We are high up, so the village has some amazing views across the county (and the next county.) We are 2.25 miles away from the nearest 'main' road - a small and quiet B road. There are several farms on the country lane that leads to our village. And lots of woodlands too.

The road my village is on leads to nowhere except another village 1 mile away. That village is 1.25 miles away from the little quiet B-road, (and we are 2.25 miles from this B road.) So you come off the B road at one end, you pass through our village (after 2.25 miles,) then the next village a mile afterwards, then you come back out onto the B road (a mile or so after passing through the other village. (The 2 exits are 1 mile apart... So very little traffic comes through here.)

I have lived in suburbs, towns, and cities, and moved here about a decade ago. You couldn't pay me to move out. I will never live in a suburb, town, or village again. My neighbours are lovely too in my little corner of the village - 2 families with 2 DC each, 2 families with 3 DC each, 4 elderly couples, 2 elderly women, and a young woman with a little girl. Then DH and I on the end with a big corner plot, and a large garden (that backs onto woodland.) We can see the sun set (and rise) from our house, during some of the year. 😃

There are activities in the village all year round, and social meet up groups and hobby groups if you want to attend any of them. The Christmas lights switch on in the village is lovely. Most people in the village come along, pop in and out of the nearby pub, and they have Christmas carols around the Christmas tree. Glorious place to live. We love it. 😍

People as and when, beautiful scenery
Bliss, every season

A hamlet is a collection of houses, no shop, pub, post office etc. but can have a church.

Really? Google identifies it as Mont Rougemont, Canada.

It's Scotland 😄

Surely no one is ... LYING ABOUT HOW RURAL THEY ARE???!!!

Really? Google identifies it as Mont Rougemont, Canada.

Wherever it is, scenes like this are hardly scarce.

Phwoar. Can you imagine lining all of those rocks up.

Yes. And Alan Partridge style travel taverns are also rural. Gooold-FINGERRR

The best one is someone I know who lives , according to themselves, "semi-rural". In a housing estate beside a huge shopping centre. Because if you keep walking until you're almost at a dual carriageway, there is a city farm in between the end of the next housing estate and the dual carraige way.

The first time I heard them say it I thought they were outright lying.

But I've since heard them say it WITH the name of the area, so they're not actually pretending to live in a totally different place, and believe that "semi rural" is a thing

And from what I can tell, the thing is being able to see some grass in walking distance from your house.

So all the while I thought I was living the cosmopolitan city life in a leafy part of London, I was living semi rurally???

To me rural is anywhere between a house/dwelling of whatever description miles from anywhere to a house in a village

I used to live rurally. It was RURAL. But people say they live rural just because there are some fields nearby, like on the outskirts of towns

I'm always amazed by posters who say they live on the outskirts of a city and across from where they live are fields.

They describe this as living rurally.

Yes, there absolutely can be small towns within a rural community. I live in a small town that is officially considered to be a part of a rural community. But a small town in my area would be somewhere with less than 10k population, and usually under 5k. I know in some parts of the country there’s places with a population of 12-15k that are considered villages.

Tooting common then

If you don't have a corner shop in walking distance and can see nature from your window is rural to me.