Moving south of Glasgow

[tidyingmargo]

My family and I are moving south from the Aberdeen area to south of Glasgow.

We're thinking Strathaven would be good. I'd be interested to hear your views of Strathaven including info regarding the schools - both secondary and primaries.

Are there good areason and areas to avoid?

Any other suggestions for where to live - need to be able to easily access the motorway south and get to East Kilbride.

Thanks in advance.

in case you didn't know, there's a scotsnet section :)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/scotsnet

The schools in Strathaven are generally ok, there are some issues with living with tweens/teens in Strathaven though.

Generally, if parents go out for a night they have to book a hotel as taxi is £50 odd from town. So there was always an 'empty house' which means lots of teen parties/booze etc. There is also very limited public transport from Strathaven so you need to be happy to be the taxi driver.

If you need easy access to East Kilbride but want rural- Carmunnock is a lovely village nearby as is Eaglesham. Again-both are not well served by public transport.

If you'd like to have access to the train network, you could stay in Busby, Clarkston or Giffnock. All of which are on the East Kilbride train line and are small, fairly affluent towns with access to some of the top rated Secondaries in Scotland. (Namely, Williamwood or St Ninians.)

Its also worth mentioning that East Kilbride itself is huge, and so there is semi-rural housing opportunities there also as well as houses backing onto woodland etc.

Thanks for the link, I've posted there now too.

I like the idea of Williamwood - we definitely need a good school. The thing that puts me off is that while my husband will be working in East Kilbride, I'll be working in the Borders. I liked the ease of access to the motorway that Strathaven provides.

Realistically by car it's extremely doable. Maybe an extra 15 or 20 minutes?

The only issue I would have, is having to travel via the Raith. I don't know if you've witnessed it, it's a mess. Traffic is poor and is likely to be for a while as there are major road re-workings. I am not sure that it's even avoidable given your plans.

Definitely come stay for a weekend in each area and see what the pros and cons are. Give the commute a few trial runs as I know how miserable a rubbish commute can make you. Likewise, you don't want to compromise too much and end up in an area that doesn't suit your family.

Yeah, we've experienced the roadworks 😯 I'd be keen to avoid there if possible.

Strathaven offers a commute of under an hour - which I like. 😊