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!

Don’t put your life on a public forum if you don’t want people to comment? Maybe if (like me) you could not afford to move back to the village you grew up in you would feel differently. It’s a real shame and the sentiment is felt by most locals.

Maybe that’s the ideal retirement….one in London and one in Skye!

"We've never been to Scotland" is the sentence that jumps out at me.
Neither of you?
Are you sure you'll be ok with the winter darkness?
Also, what is it about the move that your almost teen daughter is most excited about?
I wouldn't mind living rurally, my kids would hate me for it!

I do get that to an extent.

I grew up in London in an area where house prices jumped up crazily over the past 40 years. Despite DH and I having really good salaries and a generous budget to buy a house, we were never able to afford to buy a decent sized house in the area I grew up in, where nowadays houses are snapped up only by investment bankers, celebrities or wealthy foreigners as their London home.

It was really frustrating that as a “local”, I was priced out of the area I grew up in.

I appreciate my experience is not to the same extent as yours, as I don’t want to sound like I’m dismissing your experience, but I do get it.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be happy to be there full time! The more time we spend there, the more I am finding London crowded and grey…something I never thought possible before I met DH!

OP, you only love once and it’s great to have a dream.

That said, please do take your time and get to know the area before you commit. Buying a house in an area you don’t know and then being tied to it because of schools etc is very risky and likely to cost you a lot of money and heartache if it goes wrong.

My grandmother was originally from Skye and I’ve visited as an adult in early-spring. Beautiful place but very isolated in parts, and specially when it snows.

A few years ago, my husband and I moved from a big city to a very rural area (not Scotland). You sound a bit like us- we’re quiet, quite introverted, happy to potter around and explore at our own pace with our dogs. We moved to an area that we had no connection to because we fell in love with a house and it’s a stunning location.

I love it and we have no regrets, but living somewhere when you have no connection to the location or people can be very difficult. We’re lucky that our neighbours have been welcoming and kind but we definitely feel like blow-ins. I think there was a lot of speculation about who bought the house- I heard loads of rumours about us 😀

What I’ve found the hardest is not being able to speak freely. You just don’t know who is connected to whom. Even simple things like a neighbour asking “have you been to the local bakery yet?” can put you on edge slightly because if you have been to the bakery and found it poor quality and expensive, you don’t want to discuss it because you don’t know if the owner is related to the neighbour who has just asked. Little things like that.

When I moved to the city I lived in previously, I didn’t know anyone there either but found it so much easier because cities tend to be transient. I grew up rurally and know that local politics can go back generations; it’s very hard navigating that when you don’t know the people involved, or how they’re intertwined.

For the record, I moved north of the border 15 years ago and it was the best move ever for my family and I. I would never move back down to England or Wales where I have lived before. Don't lose sight of a better life for you and your family - but be prepared for huge changes which you will have to make.

However, OP it concerns me that you have never been to Scotland and that you suggest you want peace and privacy - yet are moving to the busiest tourist island in Scotland, in a rural place where everyone knows about anything you get up to. You have to get up there and visit ASAP - and for a good long week. Imagine it in November as the first Atlantic storm of the winter rattles in sideways - and with no visitors.

Distance: sounds like your partner will travel a lot, so that should be less of a driver than the rest of the family. In Highlands we do not think about distance, but time taken to travel. And many of us think nothing of some pretty big time journeys. It is just life in a rural, mountainous place. And don't forget the ferries to get around.

I would suggest renting to start with for a year. Portree or Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland (might be easier to find a place) put your near school, more supply of houses (although that is a real challenge) and closer to shops etc.

Schools - are very different up here. Different curriculum and approach, and one I think worked better for my kids. Much more focus on learning to learn, on sustainability, problem solving and creativity, less on testing and facts to be remembered. Most schools are really good up here.

Housing could be your biggest issue - so many second home owners, so many people want to be on Skye. :(

This is probably a bit late to comment - but my husband and I moved from Edinburgh to a rural cottage on Skye over three years ago. Although we had been on holiday there a number of times and have friends who are from Skye, we hadn’t done a lot of other research. However, it’s been brilliant for the following reasons - we are working there, we’ve made friends in the community, there are music and other social events even though it’s rural, my husband was able to renovate the house pretty much by himself, I’ve been learning Gaelic at the college, the summers are long and light, there are stunning hill walks on our doorstep (and we are near trees). Our part of the island is less touristy than others, so it really depends where you go. On the down side the winters are cold, often stormy, very windy and the days are short - but you can get stunning, crisp, clear weather too and dark skies. Portree High School has a hostel and there are buses that go there depending on where you live. I think generally you have to be self sufficient and practical in terms of doing basic household repairs, DIY jobs etc but we have found local people more than helpful and friendly to us. So I wouldn’t be put off - as ‘incomers’ from Edinburgh we feel welcome and have had no regrets. It would be interesting to here how you get on in your house search!

Thank you for the reply, and I'm happy for you that it's worked out! We still have the dream, but have bought a house local to where we were before for now. Not as rural as Skye obviously, but on the edge of a quiet town.

We are going to wait for the kids to finish school, then reassess.

Well if you do need to chat about anything re moving to Skye - or visiting - feel free to DM. I hope it works out with your new house too.

I’ve only just come across your post and I’m intrigued to know what you decided to do about your situation? We have just come back from a holiday to The Isle of Skye (16-23 December) and it was absolutely beautiful. Cold, wet and very short days but all of the places we visited were just as beautiful as they would be in the summer but a lot less busy, in fact we hardly saw anyone! I can honestly say, I’ve never experienced such peace and tranquility and I come from Devon! It was a really lovely week and we are desperate to go back!