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

So "rural" = "small town" then?

Dear lord we really are in a post-truth world.

Very similar for me. We have mountain views and, despite the village lighting, dark skies once you are right on the edge of the village which is never more than 5 mins walk for anyone. I see it as very rural but obviousy not isolated.

OP your description is exactly our situation! Theres a village shop/post office/pub a mile away and a town 40 minutes. Surrounded by mountains and forests and lakes but 20 minutes to the beach.

Is that why you're all on Mumsnet? Because you've no people nearby?

That’s how we live , that’s what I call rural .

No street lights for a couple of miles either side of my house, we live down a lane around 3/4 mile long with 5 houses total. Well water, septic tank, no fiber broadband, fruit trees in our large garden and chickens. 4 miles to nearest primary school, 4 miles in the other direction to nearest market town, which has a couple of supermarkets and such but no cinema or big chain clothing shops or anything like that. We love it though.

It varies depending on area but usually it’ll mean needing to drive to a shop, town or school. Unreliable public transport and no facilities except a pub and corner shop!

This is my version of rural.

We’re rural, there’s two houses next to us, one across the road and fields behind us. Nearest shop a ten minute drive. We have cows behind us. We lived in a more rural place, one farm on the road, nearest shop half an hour away, nighttime like a nightmare, pitch black everywhere!!! Love where we are now compared to there!

Clearly it means different things to different people.

i have 2 neighbours, behind me and in front of me it’s farmland, septic tank, oil heating…. But I’m only a mile from a town, though I suspect in England it’d be a village 😂 (Scotland) and I’m near a motorway and easy commuting distance to Edinburgh.

So I’d say I’m semi-rural.

Going by the definitions some people are saying I grew up rurally, a couple of hours drive away from things like McDonald’s, one very small supermarket, had to do a two hour ambulance ride to a big enough hospital to give birth… but I mean, I lived in a flat in a housing estate, it’s just real far away from anywhere else… so… 🤷‍♀️

I will I know, I actually come from a small farming village in Ireland. When we were kids we had bikes to get anywhere ie 2 miles to the village.
Now I live in a nice area on very edge of London with ancient woodland and loads of green space and some farmland. But it’s being blighted by HS2, I’d rather be stranded behind a tractor, flock of sheep or even horses out hacking. But no I’m stuck behind HS2 trucks 😢

Deliverance.

Or Midsommar.

We’re described by estate agents as living in a rural hamlet .

A bus service that consists of one bus into the nearest town in the morning , and another at 4.30pm back . All the houses have an amount of land each , and the nearest house directly behind us , I cannot actually see even though the land is so flat it’s almost below sea level. Nearest school is over 5 miles away, and all the village kids get a school bus there. No mains gas , and mains drainage only went in 8 years ago. No shops , church , post office or anything else . Village hall functions as the social hub ( just got back from a bbq there ). Several farms, so get my lamb , eggs and pork directly from them . Have had a bit of infilling in recent years , so have watched a number of new houses spring up with all mod cons , heat pumps etc etc , only to watch them all have a wood burning stove installed before the following winter, because it’s also damn cold here . Everyone has a dog . Or a horse , or both . And everyone meets at the feed merchants which is the hot bed of gossip 😂

Do it @BobbySox71, do it! I am a mile up a single track lane, surrounded by nothing but fields, with the Quantock Hills in the background and have just come in from the garden, having been sitting on my bench, having a last cup of tea, in total darkness, enjoying the beautiful full moon and the Persid meteor shower, (which is very active tonight!), listening to owls, the night sounds and watching bats flitting about. Heaven on Earth!!!

We don't use the term hamlet at all in Ireland. I'm assuming it's basically a really small village?

I use hamlet to mean a small collection of houses, spread out, with no other amenities in the vicinity like shops. So wouldn't qualify as a village.

Also no public transport anywhere near us x

I live rural or so they say cos I live in the country and it is a 30 minute walk to the local shop lol my nearest neighbour I can just about see their house but to get to the town I have to drive thru the woods

I envisage the arse end of nowhere.

Little to no transport links so you're fucked if your car breaks down, no local supermarkets or food deliveries and no pavement to walk on if you want to go anywhere on foot.

I live in one of a string of villages along a peninsula- sea on one side, river in the other. About 150 people in our village with a small shop, pub, church and doctors surgery. 10 miles to the nearest small town with a co-op, 20 miles to a big supermarket. It’s a big farming area with fields and heathland either side of one long road in and out. Lots of wildlife and big open skies.

Edited to add: no public transport whatsoever, only emergency services we tend to see are the coastguard crew, who are all local.

Our property is the only one in our commune. We're on a very quiet lane. Nearest neighbours are about a mile away in any direction. We're surrounded by woodland and fields full of deer and wild boar. The nearest (small) town is only about 3 miles away though.

Surrounded on all 4 sides by land, either ours or the dairy farm next door…can just about see the chimneys of their house from upstairs….single track lane at bottom of garden. Six miles to nearest market town, one bus per day in either direction if you go one mile to bus stop, fifteen miles to supermarket and hospital, schools were eight miles one way for DD and seven miles in opposite for DS. Scattered individual houses/farmsteads around but not in view. Cars essential. Kids learnt to drive and bought themselves cars at 17, gave them independence and the ability to be social without our input. No downsides…..except maybe it’s a long way to go if you forget the bread!

Now I'm wondering what the difference between a hamlet and a village is! We don't use the term hamlet at all in Ireland. I'm assuming it's basically a really small village?

Oh, and I forgot to add- our two noisy nights of the year occur when the lambs are being weaned!

Same, we have an absolute racket when the calves are taken off the cows each autumn.

Oh, and I forgot to add- our two noisy nights of the year occur when the lambs are being weaned!

In the area that I grew up in, the silence and occasional escapee farm animal scared my townie friends. They naturally assumed that I was lying until they saw and heard it for themselves. However, even I batted an eyelid and thought, "How unusual!" when a donkey ran past me as I waited at the bus stop one day.

The sort of place I want to move to 😊. I’m on the edge of NW London with some farmland and huge ancient woodland. Many livery yards including where I keep my own horse. However it’s all blighted by HS2 and scared this lovely green belt will be turned into housing.
Wanting to move and Somerset seems ideal for us, DD has just joined the Royal Navy and likely to be based at Yeovilton as she’s in the Fleet Air Arm

Our neighbour calls our area rural.

It’s maybe a 20 minute walk to a train /bus station/ town.
It’s just overlooks a lake with plenty of greenery, huge garden etc.

Exactly as OP describes and pp have posted would be my description!