Ballater/Braemer doable or too expensive?

[Treesandsheepeverywhere]

Hi, anyone know/live in or around Ballater or Braemer please help.

We are planning a move with a 300k budget for possibly a detached/semi 2 bed.

Is this realistic and which place is better?

Londoners all our lives with lots of country breaks, so love the countryside but have only ever done 2 weeks max.

Favourite places are Northumberland, Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
Love outdoorsy activities and are both big walkers and cyclists.

YABU - Boring villages with nothing for that budget.
YANBU - Go for it, you may find a gem and learn to love the different pace of life.

Perth is wonderful if you’d like a vibrant city. Crieff fabulous for a quieter town.

In comparison to some places its outstanding, we get 2 buses a day here in east anglia!

I'm Scottish and although I've lived in a good few different countries (and London!), I'm back Scotland now, hopefully for good.

I've known a few boomerangers (all from SE England, interestingly) and the reason they gave for returning was, without exception, the lack of light in the winter months: do NOT underestimate this.

I live in Glasgow and even in the Central Belt, you're lucky if you get five to six hours of daylight in the depths of winter. Our climate on the west coast is a wee bit more temperate than NE Scotland (I went to university in Aberdeen and lived there for five years), but it's still bloody cold compared to London, and Aberdeenshire even more so.

I think you do need to put a bit more thought into this: as PPs have suggested, renting for 12-18 months would be a good idea.

I'm not familiar with the area you're thinking of moving to (though my DD lives elsewhere in Scotland and I can confirm that days are significantly shorter in Winter where she lives even than in the North of England where I am) but we made a big city to countryside move about 25 years ago and I would agree with those urging caution.
We're one of the people it worked for. We absolutely love rural life (and yes, we have chickens) and it would take a lot to get us to leave now. So it absolutely can work out the way you hope. But for every family like ours who have moved here and settled we have seen many come and go over the years.* *
Holidaying* *somewhere, even if you have bad weather or come in the Winter is nothing like living there. Things that are a novelty on holiday or at worse a minor inconvenience feel very different when they are permanent features of your life and some people just can't adapt to them. Not that that makes them bad or wrong in any way, they're just not suited to rural life. I don't think that rural life is better or worse than living in a city, but it's very different and different things suit different people. On the whole I love living where I do but there are things I miss about city life - everywhere has its pros and cons.
I would consider whether a less drastic move might be better, as it does sound like you are going from one extreme to another in one fell swoop. Plus I would definitely agree with those suggesting renting first. As well as making it easier for you to leave if it doesn't suit you, it makes it less likely that you will make a mistake with the property you ultimately buy if you do want to stay. We ended up buying somewhere a bit different to what we'd originally envisaged once we really got to know the locality. I'm fairly sure that if we had bought any of the houses we looked at before we actually lived here we would have regretted the decision. Renting first helps you make a much more informed decision.
Good luck. I know people can be a bit critical of urban dwellers wanting to move to the country and assume everyone is a naive dreamer who'll be running back to the city at the first sign of bad weather, but we're not all like that and it does definitely work out well for some. But it is a huge change, so keep an open mind, do your homework and definitely "try before you buy"!

Gosh, a lot to take in, from the midges, lack of vegetable garden seasons, lack of Wi-Fi, sewage issues, no power, lack of regular public transport, dark winters, flooding and on it goes....

@MaybeWhoKnew I'm hyperventilating too now 😬.

@Geebray @charligirl

Both mid 40's with no kids. DH works for the NHS, I'd do some volunteering and part time work.
Family and friends all around England.

Not been there @zippingalongslowly but had been looking at Holmbury St Mary in Dorking, so not the centre as such.

@MereDintofPandiculation not experienced but have been told I have green fingers as used to grow a bit when I was a teen.

Thanks @HairStylingHelp a lot to consider.

Thank you all for the suggestions, reality check and best wishes.

Now have a list of 15 new places to look into 🏡.

🤣🤣.

@Geebray , does it help that it was Holmbury St Mary not Dorking centre? 😅.

DH had lived in Hampshire countryside so has a bit more experience 🤞.

Very surprised about the PP who mentioned midges being a problem, never been so for me, that’s been only in the west! You could maybe consider aberdeenshire but not Deeside, Oldmeldrum, Alford, Huntly, etc. For example, Huntly is on the Aberdeen and Inverness line, there’s a small hospital, 2 large supermarkets, and easy access to countryside and up to the Moray coast (which has a nice climate). You could still take trips to Deeside from there quite easily.

Absolutely nowhere near Aberdeen but have you considered Dumfries and Galloway? Beautiful area that's often overlooked, rural but lots of lovely villages and towns with great communities. Closer transport links down south. Much milder winters. I grew up here and have just moved back after a few years in Edinburgh dragging my husband with us - he loves it. Fantastic outdoor lifestyle.

I moved from Glasgow to an island with literally the worst ferry service you can imagine. Winters are long and hard for sure but there are masses of community things going on.

I haven't regretted it for a minute and would never go back to the city despite the screaming frustration of the collapsing ferry service.

Think about the availability of GPs - quite hard to book appointments in the city of Aberdeen itself. Also if you are aging / in poor health Ballater / Braemar is over an hour by ambulance, have known several people who expired waiting.

Aberdeen itself is not that isolated honest, there are shops and cinemas and trains as well as good dolphin watching!!

DH had lived in Hampshire countryside so has a bit more experience 🤞.

Oh man. I see no flaws in this plan at all.

I remember driving over the Glens of Foudland early one morning on the way up to the Moray coast and watching the temp indicator drop to -13°C. Arriving at the coast it felt positively balmy at only 0°C.

We moved south because we were fed up with always being 10°C colder than the south of England. If we got a nice sunny summers day invariably the haar would roll in.

Aberdeen itself is not that isolated honest, there are shops and cinemas and trains as well as good dolphin watching!!

It’s a bugger to go anywhere else though, like for a holiday - it’s either drive to the central belt to get a more direct flight or fly to London and then get another flight.

@SabrinaThwaite but the location also opens up much easier access to holidays in Scotland including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. Depends what you’re after I guess.

@Butterfrog

Great for day trips or the odd weekend away, but for me there’s definitely a limit to the number of wet and midgy weeks in Ullapool I’m willing to suffer.

How about The Lakes? You said you love it and a lot less remote.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/130111574#/?channel=RES_BUY

I second Dumfries and Galloway (Thornhill area), or Crieff.

The bucolic village life with chickens etc feels like quite an English thing, mainly because of the harsh reality of the climate up here. We get long days in the Summer sure, but the weather is still grim most of the time.

Some of the suggestions of Perthshire or Dumfries and Galloway are worth considering, far more like the English rural dream you have in your head. There is part time work in Deeside, mainly council cleaning/waitressing or seasonal tourist roles.

Living up here if you're not used to it is less The Good Life and more akin to pioneering in the Wild West - the winters are brutal, average 15-18deg is a decent summer and did anyone mention the dark days?

Yes I agree it absolutely depends what you enjoy for a holiday!

Kitchen Gardening in the north east - great. As long as you like neeps.

Dumfriesshire is lovely. Much better weather than the north, below the midge belt and only an hour from a motorway. My grandad grew grapes in his greenhouse in Kircudbright. They were nasty, underformed, bitter little things, but they grew!

Re the veg garden, you just have to grow suitable veg. Kale, tatties, more kale, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, neeps and kale. It's a much shorter growing season here; everything starts later and finishes earlier. I haven't planted anything in my veg patch yet, because we're still getting hard overnight frosts.

I've got snowdrops flowering in my garden, and crocus, but daffodils are still weeks away.

On the plus side, I won't have to start mowing my lawn for a while yet, as it's still in winter dormancy.

I'm Scottish, went to Aberdeen University and loved the area so I'm still here. The quality of life can be brilliant! But I think most of us here have encountered someone who has moved north and found it a culture shock., often in ways they hadn't considered.

One couple who moved to my village were keen church-goers and hadn't realised that the Church of Scotland is different to the Church of England. They'd had this dream of being part of village life, village church on a Sunday, and then had a choice between going to the village church, but not enjoying the service, or commuting to the nearest Episcopalian church each Sunday.

And another couple who were completely surprised and disconcerted by their first power cut.

@stealtheatingtunnocks honestly you can grow more than neeps up in NE Scotland! I’ve grown loads of things. Yes you have to consider suitability for climate etc and it’s a shorter growing season, but that’s gardening. Mind you, neeps are certainly easy to grow and great for chickens to peck on!

@Westwindworries

One couple who moved to my village were keen church-goers and hadn't realised that the Church of Scotland is different to the Church of England.

We had a few kids that couldn’t take part in sport matches or training on a Sunday because their parents were Church of Scotland.

OP - with every kindness if you've not heard of what's going on at the Fife Arms, and you've never heard of Newtonmore or Kingussie then you've really not done your research properly in advance of such a big life change! As others have said Braemar/Ballater are very remote, and that brings with it a lifestyle that can be challenging. Whatever you do don't jump in and buy somewhere that you may not be able to sell on in a years time, maybe rent for a year first. There are also lots of beautiful and rural areas of Scotland that are not nearly as remote. I'd suggest looking at the Trossachs where it can feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you can be in Glasgow or Edinburgh in less than an hour.

Are you sure they weren't from the Free Church of Scotland? I grew up in a conservative part of the Church of Scotland and was never restricted from taking part in activities on a Sunday (unless it meant I'd miss attending the service on a regular basis). Many Free Church families still observe Sunday as a day of rest. It's the main church on the Western Isles, where it's still frowned upon to hang out your washing on the Sabbath and kids parks are closed for the day.

The only reason a C of S kid wouldn't be able to take part in sports matches etc would be if there was an actual timetable clash. The Free Church is the one that opposes Sunday sport.

The C of E couple were used to taking communion (Eucharist) as part of the weekly service, but the C of S church had Communion four times a year. They didn't feel it was a proper service without the Eucharist, and then when we did have Communion, it was different to what they were used to. They had just assumed that all churches had the same type of service.