Where to live in Edinburgh / Lothians?

[howmanyleftfeet]

Please can you help me narrow the areas we're looking at?

We're planning on moving to Edinburgh this summer. DH is Scottish and lived in Edinburgh for many years as a young man but has never lived there as a child or as a parent, so I need some help with choosing good areas to live in as a family.

Our budget is "only" £325k (seems a lot to me but I know it's not much for Edinburgh). So we're looking at areas on the edge of town, or possibly out of town but a small commute in.

We've been looking, online, at Musselburgh, Linlithgow, Portobello when the occasional one comes up, Leith, Juniper Green / Currie / Balerno, Ratho, Gorebridge and lots of villages.

We're spending Easter visiting places with fresh "do we want to live here" eyes.

If we could choose anywhere I'd chose the centre and DH would choose totally rural! But we're both open to compromise.

Our eldest will be going to secondary soon.

Have I missed any places off the list? Where would you choose?

Thanks :)

Swanston, Buckstone and Corstorphine all great options.

I was just talking to a friend who was singing the praises of Dunbar and East Linton the other day! She was telling me the train is coming to East Linton but that It's been put back - I've been meaning to find out when until.

DH tells me North Berwick is great too.

We visited a friend who's living in a beautiful cottage out in what feels like the middle of nowhere but actually not far from Dunbar - and I'm now feeling very conflicted!

It was so nice to see the DC playing with loads of space, just hanging out, playing with my friend's dog, collecting pine cones for the wood burning stove, etc. They both loved it there.

It made me wonder if we really should prioritise space.

We had a drive around some places outside / on the edge of Edinburgh.

I loved Peniciuk! We could afford a lovely 3 or even 4 bed with plenty of space and a large garden.

But - with my sensible head on, it's 30/40 minutes by public transport to the middle of Edinburgh. When we moved to the English town we're in now, I thought we'd be visiting our friends in the city 40 minutes away, loads. And just visiting the city (I love) generally. But it hasn't worked out like that - we hardly ever go over.

I grew up in London and part of the reason I want to move is I want my DC to be able to enjoy the opportunities an amazing city like Edinburgh offers.

But - perhaps that's my priorities not theirs? Perhaps space to run about and play is more important?! It's be nice to have decent space for guests too.

What's the secondary in Peniciuk like, does anyone know?

We also had a drive around places on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

I discovered Colinton is very nice ESPC / Rightmove showed only one nice flat we can afford there and no houses! Juniper Green's nice too isn't it!

We drove out to Currie and Balerno. I love they're right next to the Pentlands. Saw some lovely houses we can't afford. Feeling conflicted there also as Currie makes sense on paper (good school, good transport links, we could afford a slightly bigger place) but I'm not so keen on the bits of it we can actually afford!

We currently live in a pebbledash grey ex council house, in (very nice!) estate. It was the sensible choice (as near good schools, at the time, and more space).

I've always lived in period properties before this one and I'd love to live somewhere with character again. As our budget's small I know It's something we may need to compromise on, but driving around made me realise how important that is to me. (Important enough to be miles out of town? I dunno!)

We had a look at Mussleburgh also - looked at (the outside of) a couple of houses we could afford. Really pretty streets - one of them seemed perfect. Excellent transport links into Edinburgh.

But that's the school my friend has DC at and says It's just "OK". Does anyone else know Mussleburgh Grammar? (Actually a state school!)

Holing to get a chance to drive round areas in Edinburgh also - will definitely have a look at Swanston, Buckstone and Corstorphine, thanks! I've noticed that houses we can actually afford, come up fairly frequently in Costorphine.

Sounds like good trip! I lived in Penicuik for a while and really liked it, we made really good friends there. No train but the bus service is great and night bus too. Only 4 miles from the bypass and under 10 to prince's Street. Schools are decent, ours would have gone to beeslack but we ended up moving for work whe they were still toddlers.

Well sorry if I sound abrupt but we really did find it a no brainer to live in East Lothian with children... 20-30mins on the train to Edinburgh tops & more trains on the way. Masses of clubs, sports, musical opportunities, young people and families are everywhere and most importantly clean fresh air, space and value for money with housing.
But good luck & enjoy your search!!

Spent a bit of time in Edinburgh, visited some friends. I discovered:

a. Corstorphine is very pretty
b. What Right Move calls Corstorphine, is a much bigger area that's not really Corstorphine!

We're back down south soon. We haven't solved our country vs city question, but it's still been really useful.

After spending time with friends in Edinburgh, I can see how much we'd love living in town, even if we can only afford a flat - if it had a large shared garden that'd be grand.

I had't realised how important it is to me to be somewhere attractive. The areas that are a good compromise "on paper" (i.e. on Rightmove/ESPC) aren't really doing it for me in real life.

We went for the compromise, "sensible" house with our current house as we prioritised space. But I realise I'd rather us either be in a house out of town in a pretty area, or a flat in a great area of town as long as there's good outdoor (probably shared) space for the kids to play in, than to take a compromise house in an area I don't feel excited for us to move to.

Setting up alerts on ESPC by school catchment has been really useful.

The next few weeks will be all about getting our English house on the market, it's all starting to feel a lot more real!

The DC seem to be more positive about the move after spending time with family and friends with DC up here (phew!).

I know what you mean about what actually constitutes Corstorphine. I’ve lived in both East Craigs and Murrayfield and have referred to myself living in Corstorphine. The EH12 postcode is huge and I think a lot of locals refer that as Corstorphine. Glad you enjoyed your visit!

When I lived there I lived in "proper Corstorphine" i.e. the actual village :o

I lived in Corstorphine. Went to the Primary School and then to Craigmount. Could never afford to buy there again.