Very best wishes and good luck, OP, but as previous posters have said, there's an awful lot to consider when making a move like this. I'm sure that you will already have put a great deal of thought into this, and I wish you very well. But I live in a remote Highlands place - though not near Tain - and I have seen several people come to settle in our area. Most of them love it, so don't be discouraged. But a few leave quickly, which is a shame. From my own observation, the facets of remote Highland life that most often cause them difficulties/ disappointments are those listed below. Not all these problems apply to all areas - some places close to small towns might have very good facilities - but it might be helpful for you to find out about precise local arrangements for all the following before finally deciding exactly where to build your dream house:
- Schooling arrangements- in some areas, even primary children have to travel long distances (almost an hour there and an hour back on the bus); some secondary children have to board all week, or for two or thee nights a week. After-school activities can be difficult to organise if you live far from a school; children's best schoolfriends might live 10 miles or more away, in different directions!
- GP surgery can be 20 or 30 miles away; many Highlands GPs are not on duty out of weekday working hours (in some areas, NHS Highland has set up service of local trained volunteer Emergency Responders and employs nurse practitioners or similar, based at GP surgeries, to cover for out-of-hours.) If required, an ambulance can take an hour or more to arrive, if it is not already out on another call. The hospital might be over 50 miles away.
3.No broadband, or only limited and expensive satellite broadband service. No mobile phone reception; phone boxes currently being closed by BT. Satellite services are the only option for TV in some places.
- Village shops do their very best to provide a service, but stocks are limited and prices can be high. Newspapers might not arrive until late morning. Fresh fruit and veg might be delivered only once a week.
- Main-town supermarkets don't deliver to remote villages.
- Online deliveries of other goods can take up to a week longer; many online suppliers charge more to deliver to remote areas or won't deliver at all. This is important if you are going to self-build, because you will require all kinds of fixtures and fittings to be delivered to your site.
- No mains water in some places - private supplies can sometimes freeze in winter. No mains gas or drains in many villages, either. Septic tanks can be expensive to empty and/or unblock!
- Petrol can be very expensive; minor roads have low priority for gritting, or are not treated at all. Some villages have only one bus a day; some have none.
- It is dark in winter; and can be very cold. Wind-chill can make a just-above-zero temperature feel much, much colder.
10. When it comes to building a house, I'm sure that you will already know that building costs can be higher in remote areas than in or close to towns. Depending on your chosen spot, site levelling and preparation - there's a lot of rock in Scotland! - can be very costly, so can digging foundations, trenches for electricity cables, pits for septic tanks etc. Fencing - you might have to keep out deer as well as sheep - is not cheap. There will be (very) good local tradesmen and women with expert knowledge of local conditions, but in remote areas they will be fairly thin on the ground and you might have to wait a long time before they are free to help you.
Having said all that, the Highlands are a great place to live. Don't be put off by what I've said. But do find out - before you start - what local conditions are really like, so you can make plans to achieve what's best for you. The previous poster's suggestion of renting somewhere local while plot-hunting/building sounds good to me. Caravans are great fun in summer, but, as other posters have said, they can be cold, uncomfortable and unhealthy in winter, especially for young children.