Scottish Borders

[ohpoowhatnow]

Have the possibility of moving to the Scottish Borders, does anyone have any advice on the nicest towns to look at ? Have 2 pre school kids and would like a decent sized town nearby for all the usual stuff like restaurants/pubs/swimming etc. thanks !

Peebles is very nice. Lovely pool, great town centre. Bus to Edinburgh. Lovely riverside walks. Don't know much about schools.

I've driven through Peebles and actually thought how nice it looked. It's possible a little too far north though as my husband will have to get to Whitehaven way for work.

Whitehaven, Cumbria?

The Scottish Borders isn't going to be great for a commute to Whitehaven in Cumbria

Dumfries and galaway ? Langholm or Lockerbie are still a hefty commute

Can I ask why the borders and not actual Cumbria ?
It's hell of a drive to get to Whitehaven ( I'm guessing likely place of work / Sellafield ?
At a push , maybe Carlisle but look at Cockermouth ( lots of Sellafield workers live there )

Carlisle and Penrith are both over an hour from Whitehaven but are pretty reasonable towns for facilities

Whitehaven is also a bigger town itself than any borders town I think so likely to have a lot more facilities

And the roads are not fast

My husband is from Cumbria so we know it quite
well, he only commutes maybe once a week, he's doing it from Lancashire at the moment so takes 2.30 hrs. Attracted to borders for more rural living/ value for money with property etc.

So Peebles would park commute wise - it's about 2hr 30

Even Gretna to Whitehaven / Sellafield is a nightmare journey and Gretna is practically the first town you will hit coming from West Cumbria.
Ok he is doing Lancashire to Whitehaven currently but I'm guessing that's part way M6 ?
M6 Scotland to either Carlisle and then A595 and across to Whitehaven or alternative is M6 off at Penrith on A66 to Workington and then down to Whitehaven . No thanks .

I lived just outside Biggar (technically in South Lanarkshire, but right on the edge of Borders) for a few years, I think it’s a lovely part of the world. Proper little country market town, but you can drive into both Glasgow and Edinburgh in under an hour. Lanark and surrounding villages also an option. Very close to the M74, which makes the area great for speedy travel, and easier for Whitehaven than more towards the east coast. I worked briefly in Peebles and some of the Borders roads which take you westwards can be fairly bad in winter, so not necessarily ones you’d want rely on for a regular commute.

Thanks everyone something to think about regarding the commute, I'd only put it in google maps so was going off that.

@ComtesseDeSpair funnily enough I was looking at a house in Biggar! Nice to know you have good opinions of it ... will do more digging. Thank you!

Personally I’d take the opportunity to get only 15/20 mins from work. You never know when you need to be on site/office more often or work late etc etc.