to have realised I have no life and want to move to cornwall after lockdown

[ruledbynine]

I’m thinking if I have no life then I might as well have no life somewhere beautiful? Has anyone made the move and made it work?

[Tal45]

I do like bits of Cornwall (love the Minack theatre) but I couldn't live there. The roads are hell in summer, does my head in and that's the ones that aren't ridiculously narrow. Also I find the pretty places are overrun with tourists and the places that aren't over run aren't very nice. Bodmin for example on a grey rainy day is about as depressing as it gets IMO.

A lot comes down to your circumstances as well, got a good job that you can do out of any where and the money to buy a lovely house - well you'll probably be able to make a good go of it anywhere. If you don't have a job and you'll need to live somewhere really cheaply then Cornwall would not be somewhere I'd consider.

I'd also visit Cornwall summer and winter to make sure you know what it's like and that you actually like the place you're thinking of living (and realise just how far away it is from anything else!) Much too far from Gatwick and Heathrow for me to be able to consider it x

[babybythesea]

We moved here 10 years ago and I love it.
I just don’t recognise the descriptions of Cornwall from this thread!

We didn’t find it unfriendly. We live in a very small rural village and people were really friendly and welcoming.
I don’t find the winters here any worse than when I lived in London. Tourists can be a bit annoying - our favourite beach to go to for winter walks is not one we go anywhere near in the summer because it is so packed - but we go to other beaches less well known. I don’t normally waste energy worrying about it. I will admit to finding some tourists difficult last year - I did resent the person who told me that he didn’t want to bother about social distancing in the supermarket because he was here on holiday and to try and leave all that COVID stuff behind. But I think anyone would find that sort of attitude frustrating.

[babybythesea]

I’ll also add that sometimes I feel like I’m living in the Archers! I am certainly not lonely, I have made some great friends and it is a wonderful community. I made an effort - I go to all the village coffee mornings even if only for half an hour, for example. I did join the book group but I declined the offer to join the line dancing group. So I got to know people. I also take time to chat to the neighbours - like the old guy on the end who always sits out front with a book on a nice day. It pays off. I enjoy it too, it suits me. Got a job as a TA at my local school which is great.

During lockdown DH complained because we’d go for walks on the country roads and I would stop maybe half a dozen times to chat to people - people who’s cottages we walked past, families from school who were also out walking. I find that the place has a lovely, welcoming community feel to it.

[TwatWaffleTwinkleToes]

Do it. Just remember: wherever you go, there you'll be.

[Whatafabulousday]

I don't get the obsession with Cornwall tbh, it's like no-where else exists?

[goldenlady25]

I wouldn't do it
Have female relatives who have moved to the south coast Devon and Dorsetto retire and found it nearly impossible to integrate and those dream chill jobs soon become stressful with zero hours, no work, poor treatment etc

[Nenevalleykayaker]

Cornish are little beady eyed piskies left over from their grumpy Celt days with a chip on their shoulder (like Yorkshire natives) about outsiders moving in. (Lived in both places, family in Cornwall).

I like them though, they’re upfront and honest, so if they don’t like you, they’ll tell you. Take that as you will. They’re not big on etiquette and skirting round the niceties. None of that school gates mum clique nonsense, if there is, it’s not Cornish women, that’s the outsiders who’ve moved in. You get what you see with Cornish. It’s commendable.

Everyone non-local is either a relocated pagan or pretentious as heck because they sold their terrace in Hackney to easily afford live on a farm in Rock and eat at a celebrity chef restaurant on the harbourside.

Only the coastline is pretty. Inland is relatively flat and dull. Devon or Dorset is far prettier all round.

Penwith district is lonely and feels like the end of the world especially when you hear the foghorn.

Employment from tourism great, but otherwise poor.

Housing ridiculously expensive. Locals don’t stand a chance growing up there to afford to stay.

[TonTonMacoute]

We moved down in 1997 and DS was born and raised here. On the whole I love it but there are downsides. It is expensive to live here, the prettiest parts are just overrun and gridlocked in the summer, and the rain - my god the rain!

The lovely parts further west and on the north coast round Port Isaac, Polzeath do suffer the most from tourism (busy and summer dead in winter). The transport links from those parts are also the worst. It can take nearly as long to get from Plymouth to Penzance as it does to get from London to Plymouth.

There is also a major house building bonanza going on in Cornwall at the moment, so your lovely view is at quite a high risk of disappearing under new housing in the next few years.

We live in the Tamar Valley in the south east, which is a good compromise.

[Number3BigCupOfTea]

What does integration mean? I have few close friends in my home town. I dont think i would relocate expecting to become part of a group of friends that socialises.

[ruledbynine]

Thank you for replying but I don’t understand some of these posts. I’ve visited lots. Most of the Cornish towns/villages in summer, autumn and winter. I didn’t find the winter brutal at all. The Eden project had a beautiful ice rink. There was lots to do. In fact it was lovelier because dog walkers were out on the beaches and very friendly. Somebody said to go somewhere with more beautiful beaches? I don’t understand this. There is nowhere in the UK with better beaches? Have you been to st ives and carbis bay and PerranPorth? Cornwall has the only beach bar on the actual beach! It’s literally mind blowing beautiful. There’s tintagel and the minack theatre. There’s a University in the West! Lots of non natives working there and studying there sureky? Doesn’t a university make somewhere more cosmopolitan and tolerant?

[CruCru]

I don’t have a strong view on Cornwall. I went there for a wedding and it was lovely (if far away) for that wedding. However, it seems to be a bit of default place to move to when people on here don’t like something about their own lives.

If you have children, will they be pleased or upset to move to a beautiful, remote place? If, as adults, they only visit once a year (because it’s so far and they have stuff of their own going on), will you be upset?

There was a thread on here a while ago where the OP’s parents had moved to Cornwall and were furious whenever the OP and her family (who lived in Kent or Surrey I think) spent their holiday anywhere else.

[TheNorthWind]

@Nenevalleykayaker

Cornish are little beady eyed piskies left over from their grumpy Celt days with a chip on their shoulder (like Yorkshire natives) about outsiders moving in. (Lived in both places, family in Cornwall).

I like them though, they’re upfront and honest, so if they don’t like you, they’ll tell you. Take that as you will. They’re not big on etiquette and skirting round the niceties. None of that school gates mum clique nonsense, if there is, it’s not Cornish women, that’s the outsiders who’ve moved in. You get what you see with Cornish. It’s commendable.

Everyone non-local is either a relocated pagan or pretentious as heck because they sold their terrace in Hackney to easily afford live on a farm in Rock and eat at a celebrity chef restaurant on the harbourside.

Only the coastline is pretty. Inland is relatively flat and dull. Devon or Dorset is far prettier all round.

Penwith district is lonely and feels like the end of the world especially when you hear the foghorn.

Employment from tourism great, but otherwise poor.

Housing ridiculously expensive. Locals don’t stand a chance growing up there to afford to stay.

Can tell you know your stuff. Can't fault a word of this. (Reckon it's going to make a few other people amusingly cross though.)

[HeronLanyon]

Just read your update op. My replies were written without knowing you knew Cornwall well. Your first was absolutely silent on that ! I wrote a bit in the dark. If you know it well then you’ll be familiar with some things on this post - of all sorts.
I’ve known a lot of people move ti Cornwall and find the winters a shock. They’ve moved because of the better weather.
Where I know very well people discuss how many winters they they newcomers will stand. Three winters and they’re fine type experience.

[DipSwimSwoosh]

I love Cornwall and it is home to me. It is beautiful and I miss it.
But a pp who said it is always warmer than the rest of the UK is wrong. It sticks out to the west and is much milder and wetter. Summers in the SE are warmer, winters are brighter.
Cornish winters (and much of Summer) are grey grey grey and damp. I used to get SAD there but not elsewhere. It's the endless grey.
I might move back one day, but there are definitely more days of clear skies in the East than the West, and that's tough.

[NoMackerelInSwindon]

Well yes, we are an island in the temperate Atlantic and it is wetter in the West than the East. I thought everybody knew that.

[DontTouchMyHairISwear]

If you don't have a life where you are you aren't going to suddenly acquire one by moving to Cornwall.

[DynamoKev]

@Whatafabulousday

I don't get the obsession with Cornwall tbh, it's like no-where else exists?

Me too. As soon anyone mentions a UK holiday anywhere in the media its instantly Cornwall.

I'm not going back after being abused as "fukin emmetts" as an ordinary family just walking along minding our own business.

[poppycat10]

I wouldn't move to Cornwall, I'd go somewhere where the locals are friendly and the house prices are low so I can have a decent quality of life.

[DynamoKev]

There is nowhere in the UK with better beaches?
Cough - Antrim Coast. Better and less crowded (IMHO of course).

[Cocomarine]

@TheNorthWind you made me giggle! I’m Cornish but it’s a long time since I’ve lived there. Jobs, you know... (and not wanting to take an extra 2 days leave to go anywhere further than Bristol 🤣)

@ruledbynine just remember that you take yourself with you wherever you go. I miss the beach like crazy, but I don’t have “no life” where I live now, inland. Address why you haven’t made a life before you move.

You’ve just posted glowingly about Cornwall and said you know it well. So think about why you started this thread. If you’re that set, why do you need to ask AIBU?

[MrsBotibolsCruise]

IMO living somewhere where people are kind, friendly, and welcoming makes a big difference to your overall happiness. I am an outsider somewhere most people (everyone) would agree is a pretty cacky place to live.

Whenever I have an existential crisis about it, it only takes one friendly encounter in the street or supermarket or school gates to make me feel better. It’s a lovely community to be part of. I couldn’t live somewhere beautiful like Cornwall to be sneered at by the posher outsiders or completely rejected by the locals!

[Nenevalleykayaker]

@TheNorthWind I guess you’re right but it’s an honest account so I have to stand by It.

I have a lot of respect for Cornish natives, so my heart goes out to them and the love/hate relationship with tourists and relocaters moving in.

Anyway OP, if you think Cornwall’s beaches are the best in the country you haven’t been to Dorset or Scotland yet !

The only Zen you’ll find on the top of the mountain is the Zen you take up there with you

[DontTouchMyHairISwear]

IMO living somewhere where people are kind, friendly, and welcoming makes a big difference to your overall happiness

Every where you go you'll find some people who are those things and some who are not. It's not specific to any place.

[ancientgran]

I live in Devon, moved here about 25 years ago. I hate it but we got stuck as kids settled in school, my job etc. Kids all gone, like almost all do as not great job opportunities here and worse in Cornwall. I'm desperate to leave, DH is disabled and won't move.

I want to live in a big city, I want facilities, culture, family. I've seen enough of beaches.

[OnlyHerefortheBiscuits]

You said in your opening post that you 'have no life' , OP which is really stark!

Is it this sentiment that prompted the thought of moving to Cornwall? Can you expand on why you feel you have no life where you are now?

What you feel is stopping you having a life now In your current location and what you feel Cornwall (or any move) will provide you?

No need to come back and tell all if you don't want but Big decisions = LOTS of thinking. I'm not saying you haven't done the thinking hard bit..but...just make sure you have! Good luck x