Where to live with a young family in Edinburgh/The Lothians

[Nuttypops]

Does anyone have any recommendations of area/small towns to look around with a view to buying a house to move to with a young family in and around Edinburgh and The Lothians please?

We are hoping to move next year, and trying to get an idea of areas to look at to start narrowing down options.
We will have a 3 year old and a 1 year old when we move, DH is likely to be working in central Edinburgh, so anywhere within an hour commute of there is ideal. I am a teacher so will hopefully be able to work more locally.

Looking for somewhere with access to local shops, parks, swimming etc and good primary school options for the DC. Less concerned about secondary school options at this stage.

I spent some of my teenage years in Edinburgh, and my parents still live there but near Balerno and we would struggle to buy there for the size of house we are looking for.

Budget is around £250,000 for a 3/4 bedroom house which I imagine means we need to look out of Edinburgh realistically.

Any thoughts? We are going to look around Linlithgow and Dalkeith so far.
Thanks!

Is Innerleithen in the right area/budget?

You might get more for your money on the Fife side of the bridge OP, and lots of nice wee schools there for you and the DC. Depends if your DH minds the commute, traffic can be heavy going over the Forth Road bridge at peak times.

Have you looked at the Murrays in South Edinburgh?

Bloodymaria, any idea what the commute across the bridge is like with trains at all? There are areas we would happily consider across the bridge, and it would be much more doable price wise but DH isn't keen on the commute if he needs to drive. It looks like train options are pretty good but I am not sure about the reliability.

Both Innerleithen and The Murrays aren't areas we had thought of, they look like good possibilities on Google. Thank you!

Really open to any suggestions at this point so it is really useful to hear different options. Thanks.

Well I have the same sort of budget as you and am expecting to get a 3 bed in E itself so a bit worried now!
Currie, Clermiston, East Craigs, South Gyle, Liberton, S Queensferry are all areas within the city where you'd probably get a 3 bed for that price - they go above that obviously too.

Kirkliston or Linlithgow come to mind.

Ratho, Roslin, West Linton, Dalkeith, Kirkliston, Loanhead.

Maybe Silverknowes, parts of Corstorphine & Colinton Mains, as well as the other areas mentioned in the previous post.

Penicuik?

The new bridge will mean more flexibility for commute, there are some good bus services from Fife if there are train issues.

East Lothian is nice but can be expensive. Penicuik is a bit soulless, I live in a naice part of Dalkeith, it's very family friendly and the DCs school is good.

What about Falkirk? 35 mins from Edinburgh and 20 mins from Glasgow on the fast train. Lots of young professional couples have relocated esp. when one works in Edin and one Glasgow:

Lovely: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54455995.html

Sweet but not big enough? www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31700127.html

Hideous but large: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-60828530.html

Odd pillow choices: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42833223.html

Good point about the new bridge, I hadn't thought of that. It opens a lot of areas we love up so that is definitely worth consideration.

Thanks everyone, really useful suggestions. We are going next week to scout about.

We rented in the city centre for years but moved further out when we came to buy. Both me and DH grew up in different suburbs of edinburgh and neither particularly wanted to return to our home towns so we looked in Fife and are now properly settled in Dalgety Bay. I love it here. I commute into edinburgh three days a week on the train, it takes 25 minutes. Two good primary schools and a real community feel to the place. Nice woodland and coastal paths and the beach is only a wee bit radioactive .

Reasonably priced 4 beds get snapped up ridiculously quickly. But with that budget you would have your pick of three beds.

West Linton.
Lovely area, the school has had a huge shake up and has vastly improved.
Commute will take round about an hour into the centre of town.

Have a look at peebles, it's lovely and a fantastic place to bring up kids.

Good schools, library, parks, countryside, shops and restaurants

We live in Corstorphine and houses in the area I live in are usually around £200K for a 3 bedroomed. It was never the area we planned to bring our children up in, but we have fallen in love with it and been here 15 years now.

Thanks everyone, this is really useful. We have been up this weekend looking at a few options. Linlithgow is lovely but I think we may struggle with our budget there. Dalkeith was a pleasant surprise, but I hear really mixed things about it. Any recommendations for nice parts of it to look at re schools etc?

Kirkliston, Corstorphine, Queensferry etc are all high up on the list- I grew up on that side of Edin so we are more familiar with it- but it price may be a pinch point there as after looking around, I think we realise we are after a large 3 bed but preferably 4 bed with a garage so in reality may need to go out of town.

Dunfermline has popped up in discussions, any thoughts on whether this is too far out?

Thanks!

Dunfermline isn't far but if you/your dh is commuting in at the peak times it will involve joining a very long and almost stationary queue of traffic - unless the train is suitable. It's a very nice town actually with an "old" feel about it though with a lot of fairly soulless newbuild areas.

Cycling and the train would be the plan for DH I think, I won't be working in Edinburgh so more likely to need to drive.

Train from fife isn't too bad most of the time - is he properly in central Edinburgh?

£250k in Dunfermline will get you a 3 bed bog standard house. There are ALOT of new builds but actually there is starting to be a bit less of a new feel about the estates imo if that makes sense?

Personally I'd buy in Dalgety bay if over in Fife otherwise I'd look at Drumbrae kind of areas.

Tbh though we left Edinburgh because that was our budget and our requirements

Musselburgh. Amazing community have just had a week of civic celebration for the Riding of the Marches. Own theatre. Close to seaside and country side.
Get a place near the station and it's only 7 minutes into centre of Edinburgh.
Local university is Queen Margaret University.
Brilliant amenities all round.

I was about to suggest Musselburgh too, I loved it when I lived there.