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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

187 replies

popbingo · 08/08/2025 21:31

So many posters on MN talk about living rurally. I picture a farmhouse (or something similar) in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and mountains. The nearest shop would be a 30 minute drive away etc.

Please share your thoughts!

OP posts:
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toiletpiper · 09/08/2025 08:37

no pavements and have to drive everywhere. My idea of hell 😆

Badbadbunny · 09/08/2025 08:38

For me it means a small town or village surrounded by countryside within a few minutes drive or say 10 minute walk from home.

toiletpiper · 09/08/2025 08:44

Some people thought rural meant the same as remote, but it doesn't.

True, family has a home in the French countryside. There are a few neighbours but it is surrounded by fields. Definitely rural.

SpaceRaccoon · 09/08/2025 08:45

No it isn't That's an image you've generated using an AI image generator.

Oh yes it is. It's deliberately a bit vague and arty to preserve my privacy. I'll happily send you a more detailed via PM one if you then apologise?

ThisPithyJoker · 09/08/2025 08:47

I imagine in a rural county and not in a city. If someone lived in a market town where you'd drive through fields to get to the next one, I'd still think of that as rural. But I grew up in the countryside. I think if you've mostly lived in cities, you'd imagine 'remote' rather than 'rural'. To me, I think, rural is living in a community that is largely focussed around farming (or now, potentially tourism) and at least an hour to the nearest city.

CarlaH · 09/08/2025 10:10

Before mobile phones I used to get panicky when we went on holiday to rural areas in Europe. I would sometimes wake up in the night and wonder what on earth I would do if my OH had a heart attack or something. I didn't drive, didn't speak the language and it would be miles to the nearest house. Thankfully these days we tend to go to places that are less remote and having a mobile phone does at least bring some peace of mind.

In this country I would probably have felt less isolated but it would still have been a long walk for help.

It astonishes me that there are people on MN who live remotely but don't drive and rely on a partner.

I still remember staying in the Lake District in a largish village but getting a taxi was very expensive as all the taxi drivers came out from the nearest large town.

Programmes that show shots of roads in places like the US and Australia where they just run for miles with no sign of civilisation really make me feel very twitchy.

BeMellowAquaSquid · 09/08/2025 11:26

We consider ourselves semi rural as we’re surrounded by farming land and lots of green however realistically we are 15 mins from the M25 and our local shopping centre is 10 mins away. My dad on the other hand is so rural that they have an actual shop come along in a van once a week selling necessities as their local supermarket is a 40 mins away drive away.

eurochick · 09/08/2025 11:26

I describe our place as semi-rural.

We are within the M25 but not on gas or mains drainage. Our road is single track with no lights or pavements. We get foxes, badgers and deer in the garden, and birds of prey circle overhead most days. A pair of bats visit at twilight. From my bedroom window I can see trees, ponies and sheep. It’s a two mile walk to the nearest shop. But I can see the M25 in the distance. And we are about two miles from a zone 6 station. It is a really odd mix.

GirlofInkandStars · 09/08/2025 14:47

My extended family think I live rurally! I’m in a small town (with a hospital and secondary school…) only 20 minutes from a city! But for them rural starts anywhere outside of zone4!

For me rural is a farm a mile from the nearest neighbours up in the mountains with a 30 minute drive to the nearest shop.

For most people it’s somewhere in the middle I think!

Branleuse · 09/08/2025 14:50

I imagine them being near roads with no footpath. Intimidating Neighbours with shotgun licenses.

EveryKneeShallBow · 09/08/2025 14:56

Meadowfinch · 08/08/2025 21:49

Deer, owls, foxes, hawks. A lot of sheep. Pasture to the back, woodland to the front.

Tractors cutting hay at 1 in the morning. No shop. 3 miles to the nearest pub, 4 miles to the closest primary school.

Love it 😊

I think you might live near me

ETA not very near, obviously

PennywisePoundFoolish · 09/08/2025 15:04

I always say I live in a semi-rural place. We do have a farm directly behind us, 45 mins to the nearest A&E hospital. There is a smaller, cottage type one, that's always narrowly avoiding closure.
Loads of tractors around, we once had a pig running around our road as it had gone on a Babe-style escape. Quite a few narrow, one-track roads. No deliveroo/ubereats.
Nearest traffic lights are about 10 miles away. That was something that blew my mind when we moved here, as I'd only just passed my driving test and moved from a small town.

But our village has a primary school, train station, doctors and 3 convenience shops within walking distance and there's proper pavements. There's no walkable route to the local secondary, so children living here and surrounding villages get a free school bus. It's also towards the coast. There are smaller villages nearby that are more rural, but still think they'd be in the semi-rural range.

For me, rural would be mostly farmland and 3 miles+ to the nearest shop/pub with no pavements. I don't think this would be the official classification though 😅

Gallowayan · 09/08/2025 15:10

I think the term "rural" is sometimes used where "semi-rural" would be more accurate.

ColdWaterDipper · 09/08/2025 18:06

Exactly as you’ve described it really - we are on an old farm, surrounded by our own land, only 5 farms in our postcode which covers miles. I think a hamlet (no more than 3-4 houses) also counts as rural but anything more and it’s a village.

BobbySox71 · 09/08/2025 18:20

Hedgesfullofbirds · 08/08/2025 21:35

Exactly that, but substitute Quantock Hills for mountains and a cottage, rather than a farmhouse!

My idea of heaven, with plenty of bridle paths to hack out on my horse. DH wants to be shops and a pub etc so we’d compromise with a small village, planning a move to Somerset or Wiltshire in next year or 2

Blablibladirladada · 09/08/2025 18:52

Fields, joules coat and hunting dogs.
farms, mud, more mud. Some cows or and some fishing.
you also need the farmer hat. Not too many neighbors. Loads of holly roads.

dragonfly52 · 09/08/2025 18:55

JamesMacGill · 08/08/2025 21:35

I think UK rural is very different to, for example, USA rural.

Here it probably just means living in a village with just the 1 pub.

I live in a village with just 1 pub, 1 shop, and a hairdresser. 1 bus a day , i don't drive because I have epilepsy. There is a school and a preschool. I have lived here for 40 years, extremely isolating but I have been with my partner for nearly 3 years and we are going to move, it will be a luxury for even 2 buses a day, 2 pubs and 2 shops- where we are moving to for me is luxury. No more isolation.

Jumpers4goalposts · 09/08/2025 19:14

I’d say I live rural. We have an old farm workers cottage. Nothing but fields out the front and fields out the back. I have two neighbours and neither overlook our property. We are just outside a village, it’s about a 30min walk to the edge/shop but only 5mins in the car. The DD’s have to get a bus to their catchment school.

SpaceRaccoon · 09/08/2025 19:23

We are just outside a village, it’s about a 30min walk to the edge/shop but only 5mins in the car.

We're about the same distance wise.
I've got some neighbours at the sides (not close) but nothing but hills behind me.

My loudest neighbours are cows.

Avavlon · 09/08/2025 19:30

I'm closed as living rurally around 5 miles from very well known villages and towns cheddar and glasbury around 9 miles from the city off wells.
One pub on outskirts off village no shop other them a honestly farm shop in village bus run around 2 and half hours wk days only last bus 5 pm quite a big village lifts off new houses lovely country side nature reserves main hospital around 25 millez away ,if you don't drive have to change bus 3 or 4 times to get to mai. Hospital.
Their are comutey hospital around 5 miles away but very limited services.
I love were I live but don't consider us rural anoth to justify our lack off service ,sorry bit off a issue with me at mommet.
In answer to the question I would consider rural to be isolated farms not close to well known tourists villages towns and city

Nestingbirds · 09/08/2025 19:32

We live rurally. You can’t survive here without a four wheel drive and even then we are cut off every winter with snow. I am used to it now. I think there is a spectrum on the rural front. Completely out in the wild with no neighbours at all for miles and miles to well resourced villages still miles from town but with a small amount of infrastructure.

FortheloveofCheesus · 09/08/2025 19:32

I wouldn't class it as proper rural where i live. Its a village, with two pubs, school, shop.
The "farms" around the village are mainly equestrian or random stuff like organic English wine .
Signs it is a bit "rural"

  • smell the muck spreading every year without fail
  • horses & cows seem to escape into the road regularly
  • can easily get farm gate eggs/veg/meat.
Corrag · 09/08/2025 19:35

Loadsapandas · 08/08/2025 23:25

I’m really curious to know what sort of work people who live in some of these truly rural areas do for a living? (And whether I can do the same?!)

I work from home. I wouldn't be able to live here if I couldn't WFH, local jobs don't pay enough.

SpaceRaccoon · 09/08/2025 19:45

I’m really curious to know what sort of work people who live in some of these truly rural areas do for a living? (And whether I can do the same?!)

I work from home, DH works all over the place so it's kind of irrelevant where he lives, apart from the fact that it's more of a pain to get to an airport.

mamaduckbone · 09/08/2025 19:53

I teach in a village that I would class as rural. Very small, one pub, one shop, lots of farms, most families are farmers / game keepers / ride / shoot etc.