Where to live between Edinburgh and St Andrews

[NorrieTheMouse]

DH has been shortlisted for a job in St Andrews so we're contemplating moving up to somewhere in Fife from NE England. My company has an office in central Edinburgh. Where would you suggest living in between where commutes wouldn't be a nightmare? Our children are 6 and 3 so we'd need to take account of schools/nursery/wraparound care.

Hoping having some idea of where we might live will help is decide whether we'd want to make the move.

Maybe somewhere like burntisland/kinghorn area. No idea what childcares like there though, im from St Andrews area. But the beach is always a winner for kids. Equal-ish commutes and on the train line and close enough to kirkcaldy/dunfermline for shopping etc

Kirkcaldy/Glenrothes are within equalish commutes. Kirkcaldy has a better train link for Edinburgh and has a lot of nurseries and schools.

It depends on how you plan on travelling, what your budget is and how rurally you want to live.

Your nearest train link to St Andrews is about three miles away, which is a consideration if he uses public transport.
Dunfermline is a popular commuter town for Edinburgh and has good rail links to there. It's about 45 minutes drive to St Andrews as the worst of the commuter traffic is h adding towards Edinburgh.

NE Fife is more expensive and generally has less to do by way of decent cinemas etc (I grew up there) and you have to go Dunfermline or Dundee.

The centre is really about the only bit I'm really not keen on (Glenrothes to Cowdenbeath)

My husband works in St. Andrews and I work in Cupar. We live closer to Dundee. We have a few friends who are in a similar position to you. One lives just outside st Andrews. There is a nice nursery in Strathkinness. Lots of lively villages. Ceres is very pretty. Good bus link to Edinburgh from Balmalcom, Pitlessie, Kettlebridge, Kingskettle. It depends if you are looking for tiny village or a bit more going on. Feel free to PM me for more info. There is a large car park at Lechars train station to get in by train.

Dunfermline is pretty central to both. We live in a village near dunfermline and regularly have days out no bother at both edinburgh and st.andrews/anstruther

As St. Andrews doesn’t have a train station he’d need to drive to work. So how long a drive is he prepared to do? The road to St. Andrews is a windy single carriageway where you can get stuck behind slow cars. So I think as far west as Dunfermline would take nearer and hour to drive.

So if that leaves you wanting to get the train to Edinburgh (the road bridge is a traffic nightmare) pick the towns along the train line. But these will have commuter prices.

Like another poster said Burntisland is provably a good compromise

Are you commuting daily to Edinburgh? Can you work from home?

Cupar is nice and there is a train to Edinburgh and easy drive to St A. It’s not the easiest commute though heading into Edinburgh daily from the north.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Currently I work 2 days in the office and 2 from home but not sure how it would work out from a new office. DH would probably be in St Andrews 4 days per week. We currently only have 1 car but realise that we might need a second if we move - though I'd prefer to catch the train for at least the last part of the journey.

I'd say Kinross or Aberdour, maybe Dalgety Bay. You really don't want to be doing the commute to Edinburgh by car.

Hmmm...

My feeling is that you should live closer to St Andrews than Edinburgh and do the commute to Edinburgh by train. You don't really want to pay for parking in Central Edinburgh anyway. Have a look at the current train timetables. Everything stops at Leuchars and Kirkcaldy, but not all trains call at the stops in between.

I know people who have done this combination of commutes in the past from Cupar, Kingskettle, Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh itself.

Two days to Edinburgh by train would be okay.

Some people live in Milnathort/Kinross and drive to inverkeithing for the train.

Personally, I do not particularly like Dunfermline or Kirkcaldy. I would choose Cupar or Kinross or even somewhere like Falkland (lovely wee village)

Completely depends on your budget. Your big commuter towns are Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline. Dunfermline is completely soulless in the bug new estates though and there is a nightmare scenario going on with school places.

I live in Kirkcaldy and it's fine. Lots of big green parks, shopping etc. Short drives to beaches or country side.

If money no issue I'd have a huge house in Kinghorn but They can be hard to come by.

Avoid Glenrothes at all costs. Some nice parts but mainly not.

Other villages mentioned are lovely e.g. Falkland, Ceres but no train links.

Thanks again everyone. I think the PPs who suggested living around Cupar/Leuchars may be right - I don't like the idea of us both being an hour away from the kids. Just trying to work out whether how the overall balance of me doing a long commute compares to our current situation.

I live in Dalgety Bay and commute into Edinburgh, it's a decent service and rarely takes more than half an hour. My neighbours have the same set up as you. She gets the train to Edinburgh, he commutes to St Andrews, it's about an hour by car.

The reason they, (and i) chose to live in Dalgety Bay is the proximity to Edinburgh not just for work but all the fun stuff, nights out, days out, the festival etc.

I love living here. I love watching my kids grow up here. Aberdour, just up the road is lovely too but has a higher price bracket but the beaches are ace.