Relocating from South England to Scotland

[Thefairiesmademedoit]

We're relocating from the South of England (back) to Scotland. Our house has been on the market for two weeks and I'm already stressed out beyond belief. I'm normally a fairly laid back sort - honest!! Does anyone have any words of advice, or success stories?

I've been here (Fife) for just over 10yrs, and it's been fab.

Am racking my brain(cell) for advice, but the only thing I can think of at the moment is to pay a company to move your belongings.
I've moved several times with my dh, and he insists on moving everything ourselves. [nightmare]

Oh and buy loads of thermal undies - it's been positively arctic at times!

Watching with interest.

We are wanting to relocate from South East England to Central Scotland. I am expecting cheaper house prices but fewer job prospects, better education and wetter weather.

Hi there,

Moved up to Lanarkshire 3 years ago (im London born and bred). Really wasnt sure what to expect.

Wife has family up here so good for babysitting/looking after kids when I'm stressed. Even just to pop in for a coffee.

Love it, great space, good schools, goodish motorways although M8 can be a bitch somedays (new motorway into North of Glasgow (M74) will be finished in June.

Depending on where you are trains dont run that late getting out so you need to get out of town on last train at 11 at the latest.

Taxi's way cheaper than London!!

Cheaper houses definatly!! We are buying 5 bed house for 200K.

Weather in winter not so good, wet and cold, summers when we have them are very nice.

If youve got kids then lots of cheap stuff to do, local run nurserys £1 a child for 3 hours and you get tea biscuits and a chat. Libraries run rhyme and time for the kids, you do have to join in and make a twat of yourself but all good fun.

From the age of three kids get 2.5hrs of free nursery care for 5 days a week, thats in Lanarkshire, not sure if Scotlandwide.

I moved all our stuff in a van, was a nightmare but just because it snowed on the way up, it took 13 hours!!!

There are jobs up here but suppose it depends on what your looking for, i've been a SAHD for three years and decided last week to get an evening parttime job in a call centre 4-5 hrs, so far, in a week ive got two face to face interviews and a telephone interview booked for next week. Fingers crossed!!

Good luck, you will love it

my sister did it 3 years ago and she loves it. she moved to edinburgh and it did take her a while but she has made great friends and her children are v happy too.

We moved from London to Glasgow just over 2 years ago. DP os from her so we always planned to come back but he was made redundant and i had just found out i was pregnant with DC3!! So we decided to see it as a sign and upped and moved in 6 weeks.

We got a fantastic removal company who packed our stuff, moved us and unpacked the other end and i have to say it was the best money I have ever spent. Took all of the stress of moving away!!!

We let our house in London and rented up here in a fantastic area. We could have never afforded to live in an area or house like this in London. The schools are amazing our kids are so happy. We're hoping to buy a new house here in the next few months.

Best of luck with it all, you won;t regret it!!!

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's clear that none of you have any regrets regarding making the move.

I came up during the English half term holidays and had a look at some areas/houses. Perth and Kinross and Perthshire is looking good at the moment.

No offers on our house yet but it is early days.

I'm kind of eager to get moved and scared that somebody will make an offer all at the same time right now.

Onwards and upwards and all that. Will for sure take on board the advice about removal firms. I agree - it will be money well spent.

charliebrown, we're doing move in summer, can you give me idea of how much the removal cost? we haven't started to check this out yet but having some kind of ballpark figure would be useful.

I did it the opposite way round. Fife/Perthshire border to East of England! Have lived here for 10 years now and positively yearn to move back home, unfortunately with dh's job that will never be an option.

There are some lovely lovely villages around the Fife & Perth area.

If you need advice on areas, do inbox me. My pil live in Fife and my parents are in Dundee. I used to work in Perth.

And also, you'll find you have way more time in Scotland because getting around is so much easier.

You can park very easily in most places, and traffic doesn't really exist in the way you're probably used to - if I get caught in 15 mins it's unusual, whereas in London I'd happily sit on Fulham Palace Road for 40 mins and think it was normal.

Cutting down the commute and how long it takes to do normal stuff frees up more time for the nice things, like visiting friends, seeing family, going on outings etc.

I have no idea why anyone would choose to live in London now.

I'm just thinking about returning to Scotland from the South West. I'm English but moved up to Glasgow for uni when I was 17 and lived there until my mid-twenties. I'm currently applying for a job in Perth and, if I got it, would be looking to move this summer.

I'm considering some of the villages on the west side of Perth as my friends live further across in Alloa. Any views on Perth itself or the villages? It would be me and DD (6).

Looking at houses, I can get a 4 bed with a decent garden for about the same as a poky 2/3 bed Victorian terrace down here.