Downsizing a move to Dumfries & Galloways

[TheKindToBewith]

We are Senior citizen couple planning our move to Dumfries and galloways from Essex .. any tips guidance help much appreciated .. thanks..

I presume you have holidayed in the area many times. I used to live and work there and I did love it but if I were to move back I would want to be nearer Dumfries than Stranraer! Dumfries isn’t far from many places. A couple of hours to Edinburgh and Glasgow, about 3.5 hours from York, 45mins from
carlisle. Kirkcudbright is a good 30 mins from
dumfries and it just makes any journey so much longer.
The communities are great and there’s a lot going on, beaches are amazing, great walks, lots of forests etc but you need to be really organised with shopping and if you need a major hospital it’s Edinburgh or Glasgow.

It’s great but a pain if you want to go further afield -so 1.5 hours to Glasgow or Edinburgh airport but extra half our or so in case of traffic, and hour to Carlisle by car where there is a good train service or a slow train to Carlisle from Dfs. There are local buses but not very regular.
Lockerbie is near the motorway and has a station. But not near beaches. Further west is pretty but further from motorway -it’s 70 miles to Stranraer from Dumfries.

Thank you Autumn 1990 and Pat88 for a lovely piece of information.. .

We have lived in suburbs of London for over 50 yrs.. now we find our place too big to do maintenace etc ..
We have driven all over UK including most northerly place of mainland UK.. ie Dunnet's Head .. and Lands Ends too.. but we felt good vibes in Dumfries surrounding as there are many interesting walks and other big towns within 1 hrs drive so it sounds good.. .. but cold weather been a put off ..
We need a smal property .. 2 or 3 bedroom that is kinda move in type as we can not handle renovation/repairs at our age.. also with a smaller garden and a garage or a drive for car parking.
We plan visiting Dumfries area in New Year. staying in a caravan for a week or two to explore places.. dont know what to look for when we are there .. sigh ... so.. we need some kinda lead or a website link or a checklist if anyone can help please.

Also if anyone can recomended good place to stay .. prefearbly a caravan so we have freedom of cooking etc ..

If all goes well our plan is to move in 2025 subject to our property sale.

There are loads of holiday cottages in Dumfries and nearby. Last time I stayed it was in Dalbeattie. I really like Dalbeattie, it’s not a holiday town, it’s full of locals. Has a good tange of shops and a nice community. The shops in small Scottish towns are nothing like the English ones you will be used to. You can walk to the forest and it’s not far from the beach although parking for the beach is a nightmare in summer.
Kirkcudbright is the artists town with a lovely harbour art galleries etc.
castle Douglas is a food town. Plenty of shops, couple of supermarkets nice loch with walks at the end of town. Not too far along the A75.
There’s not much at gatehouse but there are many retired English people there. I wouldn’t look to live as far as Newton Stewart.
Annan is worth considering good range of shops supermarket well connected to other towns. There’s Dumfries as well which probably feels quite small if you’re used to being near London. To me it feels too big as I live in the middle of nowhere.
Life in Scotland is different to England. Many of the laws are different, the church is different too. Many more people go to church and a lot of socialising happens in church halls. If you’re C of E is episcopalian church in Scotland. The politics are different with the independence movement and there is some sectarianism in D&G often linked to sport. Further up the west coast there are still orange marches etc. None of this ever affected me, it’s just useful to be aware of and to remain neutral in conversations.

I don’t have any knowledge of Dumfries and Galloways, so cannot help you with the specifics of your question. However, in your position I would be a little cautious.

A friend decided that she and her husband wanted to move to France in their retirement. Fortunately rather than buying another house outright, they rented one for six months first. Initially, they loved living in France but after a few months missed the social interactions they had built up and moved back home once the rental was completed.

This very well may not be the case for you. However, renting a house for six months gives you the opportunity to explore the area and take a more considered approach to where you would like to live.

Good Luck with your move.

D&G is rather large

Things to think about include the weather - much wetter and wilder than Essex

Given your age now You may want to make sure you live somewhere you can manage without a car when you get older - lots of D&G is very rural / facilities may be spread over a wide area

Things you might take for granted - distance to hospitals , cinema , marks and Spencer's shopping - think about everything you have done in the last 6 months and think how that would work in the new location

Think about how to make friends - what social community would you ideally be near - it's no good being really into Zumba and the nearest session is half an hour away along really poor roads - and a lot of the roads are really poor.

It’s really lovely around the Colvend and Kippford areas. There are a lot of beautiful houses . It’s easy to get to the beach and they are quite near Castle Douglas which has a reasonable supermarket and some great independent shops.Its about half an hour to the main hospital in Dumfries and Galloway.
I don’t like Dumfries very much, and the Stranraer end is a bit far away from everything.
I live in Glasgow and it takes around 2 hours from there to the Solway coast. The pace of life is definitely slower but it does feel slightly like going back in time.

It is very wet though and last summer had little sun. Be prepared for that, very different than the SE.

WoW! what a wonderful insights from everyone !! Thank you so much to all..
Looking forward to more pleeease.

We are in our early 70s and after reading everyone's views it feels exciting, a bit scary and confusing in what to do next.. I guess with more responses it will be helpful..

Please keep sending us your views on D & G and other areas of Scotland to consider as we are not giving up hope..We love Scotland.. We definitely wish to move to Scotland.. You can also PM us ie sending private message by clicking three dots in right hand corner of msgs ..

Looking forward to many more views .. Thanks..

To all Happy and Healthy New Year.. 😇

Galloway. No s.

It's Dumfries and Galloway, not Galloways.

Agree with others, what you do day to day now will help determine where will be best to live.

Holiday in Scotland in January and February. If you can can survive that then you are good to go. The winter usually flushes people out and they move back south. If you are serious about it, take the time to do this. Whilst living there, find out what sort of social life you’d like and make an effort to make contacts. Also check for local hospitals and drs. How far away are they. The remoter you get the harder it is to get to a hospital. You definitely need transport. I’d also book in a couple of house viewings so you can get a feel for the market and it makes it more real. some places have a large retiree/incomer social group.

Dalbeattie is good. It has reasonable bus links for D&G and I can't count the number of red squirrels I've seen in the forest! Thornhill is nice too and again good bus links to Dumfries but also the central belt buses go through it too. Castle Douglas is sweet (I've family there). I know people are saying it takes a long time to get to the town from the wee towns but I live in Edinburgh and on a bad day it takes me 40 minutes to cross the city anyway (a distance I frequently walk and is not much faster on public transport)

I'd suggest that if you're past the stage of being able to maintain a house, you're probably past the stage of being able to co-ordinate and implement a move several hundred miles away.

Oh and I don't know about other wee towns but I'm very familiar with the medical centre in castle douglas. It's quite large and they're used to helping access supports for senior citizens. They've been amazing with helping us get support for my dad. Not saying you need that now obviously, but just a thought for the future!

I discovered the area after falling in love with the Lord Peter Whimsy novels by Dorothy L Sayers, specifically Five Red Herrings which was written while the author was staying there.
What surprised me was how spread out all the locations were and as someone who recently moved house with my retirement very much in mind, I would be a bit worried about moving somewhere like that when older (talking as someone who has a medical condition that calls for periodic scans, treatment at a major hospital etc).

We had a break last year at a caravan in pow foot near Annan . Lovely pub along the road and amazing views !

A tangential point, but are you expecting visits from people in Essex/SE England?
My parents retired to this area, there is no remotely convenient airports serving this area so you can't fly there from LGW or LHR, so we had to drive from SE England which was a pain as the M6 always seemed to have a blockage somewhere.
It proved very difficult to support them properly when they got older and needed help.

A few things to consider

Where are your family based? Will you still be able to visit them easily or are you expecting them to visit you?

I assume you are both still driving however many people give up driving in their eighties. Be sure that you choose a location/house that will still work when this is the case.

Do you have family/friends in the new area already or are you looking to make new ones? How are you planning to do this? Have you researched what is available in the area.

And sadly probably the most important, if one of you passes after the move are you both still happy that this would be the area you would want to see out your days on your own. Not nice to think about but if you are in your 70s it must be considered.

Like others have suggested strongly advise renting and doing some touring and fact finding .

Dumfries and Galloway has some pretty parts but stay well clear of Dumfries - run down town IMHO . Nice large villages in East/middle are Moffat Thornhill Lochmaben New Abbey there is the coast at Carsethorn and Kippford .Castle Douglas has independant shops but a bit 'mixed; in my opinion .
Kirkcudbright and Gatehouse further West might be options .The West is very pretty and coastal Whithorn etc but a bit difficult to get anywhere unless you like driving .

Access to GPs and dentists isn't good in D&G .You will need to drive and no motorways lots of pot holed rural roads. Rural roads are full of farm traffic and the A75 remember is the Euro route to Stranraer so busy . Public transport isn't great.

Lots of areas prone to flooding . Rural areas prone to power cuts in bad weather villages get cut off easily . Local regional hospital is in Dumfries but any treatment that is complex likely to be in a city hospital so another consideration if getting older.

Property tends to have oil heating or Macgas (bottles) also septic tanks are usual. Its not uncommon in the rural areas to have half million pound houses next to a rented farm cottage .Rural region so lots of farm traffic and farm animals can be suprisingly noisy .No street lights in a lot of hamlets/villages .

Shopping limited lots of 'Tesco towns ' and eating out not much variety -again you'll likely have to drive to access a decent eatery .
Culturally its a bit varied the Wigtown is the book town and Spring Fling festival is worth a look .

Relatives lived and worked in region for many years but retired to Yorkshire - horses for courses I guess - I used to holiday with them in D & G as a child and later with my own young family .Went back recently with my now grown up daughter and found a lot of changes nice for a holiday but wouldn't want to live there .