The Highlands? Or what’s your rural fantasy?

[meetthewildes]

It’s probably lockdown getting to me, but I would love to hear from anyone currently living in the Highlands - the good, the bad, what you do at weekends and whether you’re happy with your lifestyle choice (if it was indeed a choice). What do you do for work? Is there a sense of community?

We’re seriously contemplating continuing with homeschool until the children are in secondary and looking into options for boarding at that stage anyway. Children are keen but also probably too young for their opinion to hold much weight, though if community is an issue there are plenty of them to keep each other company.. and we all fancy having land and ponies. My job may well be translatable to a move, though I haven’t looked into this properly because it’s mostly a pipe dream at this point.

Would love to hear thoughts!

Hi @meetthewildes I stumbled across your thread this morning and noted the lack of response.
I am in Aberdeen so not a true Highlander, but wanted to point you in the direction of the Scotsnet section , under Other .
If you repost there, you may get more responses, and from people who can help.😁

I’m not a highlander but the daughter of one who moved south.

If your current job can WFH your alright, Inverness has jobs in most sectors - nhs, care, education etc but limited. My friend has been in the same job for years.

If you live anywhere that isn’t Inverness you need to drive for any sense of freedom

Houses are quite pricey (although cheaper than London and Edinburgh)

I think there is a community but it can be quite closed off and exclusive, that’s not to say people aren’t friendly. The way my family describe it is everyone else knows your business before you do

They get a lot of people who move from the south of England and put strain on their services (very limited dental places for example) and don’t last. However they need families and really need people that work in the care sector. If you have a secure income and are willing to stick it out, go for it.

Scotland is a home for many, its just the highlands are the extremes of everything

I live in a fairly remote area of the highlands. Obviously every area is a bit different rural autherland or caithness will be different to Inverness. With kids I would say go for something closer to Inverness, even if they board they will want cinema, pizza huts etc in holidays.

the good
The area its beautiful
I find it very peaceful
All our hobbies are literally right on our doorstep
We've been able to afford to have crofting land, so have sheep, pigs, chickens, polygrubs. Which was really important for us.

the bad
Oil heating or lpg heating, because of no gas lines.
Excess postage charges (if they deliver at all, amazon is good but loads of companies are just nope won't deliver to the Highlands)
You have to drive everywhere
For me, but it's different for people who live in more populated areas of the Highlands, only one GP. So when I read mumsnet threads about just go to a different doctor I feel jealous as I'm not the biggest fan of mine!
For big health care you have to travel for me it's to Inverness, 2 hour drive south.
Again area dependent but the weather is shit, sideways rain and howling winds.

I listed so many more bads! But I actually love it, its just hard to quantify the goods in a list as most are just personal things to me like hobbies, but for the bad it can apply more broadly!

what you do at weekends
Walks on the beach
Canoeing
Fishing
Hiking
Biking
We have a croft so work on that.
When the weather is totally shit (frequently) we watch movies etc but at home no cinema near us !
When there's no pandemic on trips down to the big city (Inverness)

whether you’re happy with your lifestyle choice (if it was indeed a choice).
It was a choice, I wanted to move back to the countryside, both dh and I grew up in rural areas, he's originally from here, so we thought back to the Highlands then!
Very happy, we're both very introverted and wanted to be able to do our outdoor hobbies on our doorstep, so it suits us perfectly.
What do you do for work?
We both work remotely, I work doing freelance foley work, dh is a software engineer.

Is there a sense of community?
I talk to my neighbour frequently, we help out in their croft and them on ours, everyone knows everyone in my area as its small, this can be wonderful but also nothing is private.

We live in a rural Glen about an hours drive away from Inverness. We moved here from England 18 years ago when DC's were quite young (DH is a highlander and always wanted to return home).

As far as we are concerned the positives far outweigh the negatives, the scenery is absolutely stunning and there is so much to do, especially if your family is outdoorsy. I suppose the negatives are you need to drive everywhere unless you actually live in Inverness, the kids found it quite hard when they were teenagers as their friends from school lived quite far away (we live 12 miles up a single track road so no public transport). But now they are adults and are living away in Glasgow for university and work they adore coming home and can't wait to get out on the hills with the dog!

(Although it is -14° here this morning 🥶🥶🥶)