Moving to Skye from down south advice

[AmilyChestnut]

Good morning all, this is my first post! We have wanted to move to The Highlands for the longest time, and my partner has just had a transfer request approved for Skye! We have never been to Scotland, but need to buy a house and put 2 of our children into school. We want the remote rural living, as we live in a busy town centre and we are both hermits at heart.

I've read about buying a house up there, but it still baffles me, could someone please explain how one goes about making an offer on a house, as it's offers over for the most part..

My partner will be working out of Portree, but needing to travel all around the island and the highlands. We don't want to live more than an hour from Portree but don't want to live somewhere busy, any recommendations please?

What's the market like at the moment? At what speed are properties selling? We live 11 hours by car, or a flight away, we aren't sure how we are going to manage viewings and such yet.

The secondary school.. there is only one and from what I can figure out there are buses, does anyone have children who use this service already?

We want to come and add to the island, we will be working there and making a life there, we aren't trying to make money off the island, we just want to enjoy the peace and quiet, beautiful views and space for our children and dogs.

Any advice greatly received, and anything else I should know is too. Thank you in advance to anyone who replies!

The Highlands is a completely different place to the south of England. You will need to spend a few weeks here just to scope out different places to live.

It’s really difficult to find rented accommodation across the Highlands and is now really expensive to buy because of all the southerners moving up.

As little as possible but up to £320,000

We want a big garden and no neighbours, house doesn't have to be anything special just detached and 3 beds, ideally 4

You should get something decent for that right enough. I'd look around the offers over 275/280 mark to give yourself plenty of flexibility.

A house sitting on its own with no obvious neighbours in an hour's walk isn't a big ask in Scotland because of population density in rural areas.
But with an almost teen, I do think you'd be better on the mainland. I have friends who grew up on islands and the teen years were difficult. They all left as soon as they could.
When were you thinking of moving? Ideally you'd want settled in time for the start of the school year.
You should rent first. Will your DH's company rent somewhere for you as part of the relocation package?

Thank you Bonnie

In Scotland we do offers over so you’ll want to look for offers over no more than £300k, realistically around the £275k/£280k mark.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E61261&maxBedrooms=4&minBedrooms=3&maxPrice=300000&radius=0.5&propertyTypes=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

I don't think so as it's his choice to move, they will help with moving costs though. Did you grow up nearby?

Very helpful. Thank you

OP, I have never been to Scotland so can't comment on the area however 10 years ago I moved to a country in mainland Europe having only visited once for two days. It wasn't easy as I didn't speak the local language neither did DD who was the only English speaking child in her school, however we took language classes made new friends and settled here. We love it and would never consider a move back to UK.

What I am trying to say is take the plunge and move if it's something you really want to do then do it, you only live once and don't want to regret an opportunity you didn't take. Worst case of after a year you are not happy you can always move back down south.

We made the same mistake as you. We moved to a remote property on the west coast of Ireland, without doing any research at all. It was OK in the summer but the winter was bleak and forbidding. The lifestyle was similar to life in the 50s in the UK. No large stores within 50 miles, broadband was only just a step up from carrier pigeon and power was quite intermittent. We were back in the UK within 9 months. So glad we rented and not purchased.

Thank you. This is my point, one life live it! Your life sounds like it's worked out wonderfully, and not without its trials. But things worth doing aren't always easy.

@LauraNorda fair enough! Are you glad you tried?

Your budget is tight for what you want but you could get something like this
Detached cottage
within half an hour to 45 mins commute of Inverness.

For a feel for property out there:
HSPC.co.uk

That's lovely!

Thank you, I've been looking here!

I think your brave and you only live once. Good luck :)

No, it was a bloody stupid thing to do. It nearly broke us. 5 months of near continuous rain, stuck in the house all day, kids bored stupid etc. It took us nearly 6 years to get back on the housing ladder.

Think really hard about this.

@LauraNorda
We aren't on the property ladder at the moment, this would be our first time buy. I'm sorry you had such a negative experience

I used to live on Lewis, privacy is different, houses are spread apart but when you arrive everyone will know who you are and your children, "the new people" they will recognise your car in a small village they will know when you leave and return, in highlands and islands it is not considered rude but rather polite to just drop in on new neighbours community is important, you are expected to talk with neighbours if you met them walking

Generally speaking in High school children move to new timetable when exams start in May/ June so just now all S1 (Y7) have just become S2
To join S1 in August 2024 you're daughter will be 12 somewhere between march 1st 2024 ( possibly jan 1st) and 28th Feb 2025 ( though most who are 12 in Jan feb 2025 would defer a year)

Hi OP, I moved from London to the Highlands 3 years ago. We moved back to the area my DH grew up. It’s a mid-sized village (pub, shop, school), I commute to Inverness for work a couple of days a week which suits me well.

Overall I am really happy with the move but there are a few things that took me time to get used to (despite spending Christmases and summers up here for several years before moving):

1. the winters. The lack of light in the second half of the year is no joke, and a massive difference to England. I developed pretty full on SAD my first full winter here. I still now plan my year around the basis that I will have about 75% max of the energy in winter that I will in summer. Also winter laaaaasts. Things do not properly come into leaf until May. Of course the reverse is that it doesn’t get dark until 10-11pm in summer, but you have to pay for it later!
2. Midges. Midges are not thunderbugs like in England. They are little bastards that come out around this time of year and stay until the end of summer in Sept. They swarm you, especially on still days and early evenings, give you small but irritating little bites and make it really hard to sit out enjoying the long evenings.
3. Ticks. If you’re going for long walks, especially anywhere with woods, long grasses, deer or sheep (so, everywhere) you are likely to pick up ticks. Most of the time they are fine, you just have a little widget that pulls them off, but a small % carry lymes disease. This is no joke if you don’t catch it (with antibiotics) So all the lovely watching my kids ramble in the wilderness is tinged with worry.
4. Village life. I grew up in rural England so I was no stranger to this. But again, it is no joke. You cannot be anonymous. If you have kids in school there is a real expectation to participate (even in, say just for instance, really poorly planned expensive fundraising campaigns that add nothing to the school experience and are more about a small number of parents’ self aggrandisement…) There is lots that is lovely about this but it is still 3 years in catching me out with how much is expected of you ‘for the greater good’
5. You will often have to pay extra postage to get items delivered.
6. My village has quite a varied population (from across Britain and internationally) and we often joke that there’s more English accents than anything else at the school. But every time I go to the nearest town someone hears my voice and asks how long I’m on holiday for/where I’m staying. The best one was when I replied by pointing out to the woman our kids when to the same school!
7. Folks outright laughing when I mispronounce local words (‘Slochd’ is my nemesis!)

this might sound like I’m down on it. I’m not, I enjoy living here so much, I do a job that contributes to the community, I find living closer to nature and being more directly impacted by its rhythms a profound experience (hello paganism!). I go wild swimming in lochs on my lunch break. I am learning so much about Scottish history (we are taught so little in England!!), geology, fauna and flora. The village life thing is the most challenging and sometimes I still feel like an ‘outsider’ (despite the fact my DH grew up here and his parents have lived in the village for the best part of half a century!) but I have an amazing group of mum friends from the school and am finding ways to get involved.

I’m not going to put you off like other PPs here, but I guess I want to emphasise how much Scotland, and especially the Highlands is a different country to England. This has been a good thing for me and my family overall, but it’s not to be underestimated.

I live near Inverness and semi -rurally so in theory exactly the lifestyle you are looking for.

You need to come here and see before you make any decisions. You really need more information - schooling is different here. Living rurally with children means you will need to do lots of driving. Are you a competent winter weather driver? The climate is cooler here than down south. In winter it is dark until 9am and after 3pm.There are many many more differences.

Seriously - where I live is amazing, but you really need to consider carefully and VISIT before you make a commitment

There is no way I would do such a big change with a teenage daughter. I think it's massively unfair and if you move somewhere really remote I would imagine she'll get out as soon as she can.

I lived in Scotland for five years. The culture and the climate are completely different to England, especially to the south. If you do go ahead, then I would definitely rent first.

Oh crikey!

Op are you familiar with single track roads? Cos there are a lot of them in that part of the world. Like miles and miles and miles. Travel time is greatly increased.

I think it's a reckless thing to do with a near teen. Have a look in to drug issues in the Highlands and Islands for why.

And what about when you want to work?

We've holidayed on a nearby island for twenty years. No way on earth would we MOVE there.

I grew up just outside Inverness so very used to rural living but there's no way I could live on Skye.
Even with the bridge now which makes it much easier to get to and more importantly to get off it is just a completely different way of living.
I know it sounds a strange thing to worry about but have you really thought about the days in winter? The lack of a decent amount of daylight is something I'd really consider. Yes at the moment it is still light after 10pm, I'm much further south in Scotland now, but I honestly can't stress how different the winter is going to be compared with what you are used to.