Reasons NOT to move to Scotland

[AprilHeather]

Hello all, have come across Scotsnet from some google searches - didn’t know it existed! And after some advice please. DH to be and I have considered moving out of England for a while and never taken the plunge. We originally looked at Denmark a few years ago but couldn’t afford at the time. Now my DS’s (11 and 13) are worried about the language, especially with getting behind at school and making friends. Scotland was our next choice. We like the scenery the outdoors and the more left leaning politics. We wanted to move to Kintyre or Arran, possibly Ayr, though we would like to be more remote really. My mum would be moving up with us too and we will build her a granny flat. I am an early career academic so I will be keeping my job at my institution in England (8 hour drive from Kintyre) and stay over at my Dads when I need to. Majority of the week and all weekends and holidays I will be in Scotland with my boys, OH and Mum. I’d like reasons NOT to come to Scotland - especially the areas I mention. The cold hard reality please! It’s so easy to see the life we want (Remote, peaceful, outdoor walks and not too many people to get to know, a small community) versus the reality of the life we will have. Also, can someone please please point out where I can go online to work out what year groups my sons would be in as my eldest would start/have started study for Nat 5s if he was in Scotland I believe? I can’t work it out! Thanks all xx

I'm not sure if supermarket deliveries cover the whole of the Kintyre area. It'd be worth checking if you were thinking about a particular village.

In dry weather it is stunning but the rain can feel relentless.

You will end up being a taxi service when your kids want to socialise and as the schools cover big catchment areas you could be travelling quite large distances. Depending on where you live your kids could also have long journeys by coach to get to the local high school.

I live on the east side of the Cairngorms in Royal Deeside. We don't get midges here. The weather is mainly dry and it can be lovely and warm in the summer, although there can be a cold wind.

I'm English but have lived here for more than twenty years and cannot see us returning to live in England.

There are no midges in most of Kintyre - you'll get some in the North where there are trees. Kintyre is beautiful and the summers are good. Like many remote places you rely on one major road, if it's blocked in the winter with mudslides, rain etc you are stuffed. The ferries aren't reliable. There is an airport in Kintyre that'll take you to Glasgow or London.

If you're wanting left leaning politics then Ayr is the wrong place to go.
Scotland and Denmark are really not similar, why the focus on rural lifestyle? Adding the hassle of travel on to a huge move for your children is a big deal, what do they want?

Politics. Double the political arguments compared to England.

Less open pub culture, where I am at least. It’s all tied up with football and “no colours” and I’m not always sure where I can and can’t go (I’m English)

Midges on the west coast. And the rain. Central and east are much better imo, less beautiful overall but you can leave the house to enjoy it more.

Look for places with good public transport links unless you want to be a teenage taxi service.

I grew up in a farm in a “small community”. I have chosen a medium sized community to settle in. It’s nice to have a choice of friends, and at least a few people of your own age. Check the demographics as some places are full of retirees and an active community doesn’t always include teenage or family stuff.

Think through why you want remote. You can get a lot of quiet and space just being a few miles outside a village or small town. I’d choose one with a primary school at least so there will be local older kids.

Some parts of Scotland try to push Gaelic onto everyone - bilingual road signs, schools. Even though a tiny percentage have the Gaelic. So that's a bit annoying, as there is a lot of funding directed towards it, and if you're not into Gaelic, it does irk some. My opinion.

Slow broadband and NotSpots for mobile phone signals (in some areas).

(from council website) If your child will be five years of age on or before 28 February 2021, they are eligible to enrol for Primary 1.
(Starting August 2020).

Therefore OP, If your child will be Eleven yrs old before 28Feb 2021 they will join Primary 7 in August 2020.
And if your older child is 13yrs old before 28Feb 2021 they will be joining S2 in August 2020.

ie the cut off is 28th Feb each year. Children do 7yrs in primary school, then up to 6yrs in Secondary School.

Scotland is a big place. I’m in the east and we haven’t had rain before yesterday for weeks.

West coast will definitely be wet though.

Therefore OP, If your child will be Eleven yrs old before 28Feb 2021 they will join Primary 7 in August 2020.

But consideration will be given if a child has already started high school in England.

1/ rain there is 3 times more rain annually on west coast of scotland than London similar to Lake district
2/ Midges MIDGES MIDGES and oh did I mention midges

1. in Rural areas there is no choice of school the secondary school could be over an hour to 90 minutes away by school bus you can't do after school clubs as there is no way of getting home
2. Education is no where near as good as it was, some schools limit options to 6 at 14 ( this includes Maths and English) a smaller remote secondary will have less options anyway
3. With teenagers you will be a sober taxi driver until they pass their driving test, they may not want to cycle everywhere
4. you will need a car make sure it is economical on fuel as you will be doing miles also it needs a boot big enough to care everything you want it is 4-5 hours driving from Campeltown in Kintyre to Glasgow lovely in June when sun shining absolutely murder in the dark and rain in February
5. There is a lack of choice of actvities for kids and teenagers, are they really truly the outdoor type in some rural areas there is a drink/drug problem but not everywhere
6. Rubbish broadband you might be lucky and get 10MBPS but in some areas you might just about have enough to watch BBCiplayer

if you have 3-4 people each on devices you might struggle 9/ locals don't take kindly to incomers wanting to get on committees and organise or change stuff

I'm not all negative I lived in Outer Hebrides for 15 years there are many plus points but you asked for negatives

The weather on the West coast can be truly depressing, especially in the winter months. Very wet, cold and dark.

The education system is a mere shadow of its former self - it used to be the best in the UK but sadly no longer. Quality is highly variable and many schools are offering fewer options for exams.

Politics: we have the constant shadow of independence with both sides now deeply entrenched, which has fractured Scottish society and leads to a fair amount of unpleasantness. It is also the primary reason a lot of people vote the way they do, and since the Unionist vote is split three ways the SNP are likely to be in power for some time. And they're pretty crap all round really.

Your commute sounds like absolute hell.
I stay near Glasgow and used to get a flight to London on the Monday morning and even then- ‘twas shite and unreliable because the weather (hot or cold) screws up traffic/trains etc.

The 8 hour commute plus being away from my family for so long would put me off entirely.

Have you been to Scotland? You should come for a thorough visit. There’s plenty of village/semi rural spaces that are within reach of the airport/train link down south.
You only have to drive for 20-30 minutes out of Glasgow and you’re in the Campsie hills. Access to green space is easy peasy and could be a better compromise for your career lifestyle.

@Wheresthebiffer2 I think that is wrong as I have a daughter who turns 8 in Dec and she is going into primary 4 after the summer and a 13 year old who is going into S3 at academy..

West coaster here agreeing with midges.

Also squinting into the wind lines your face.

midges
rain
no sunlight between October and April
anti-English parochialism
no jobs/really badly paid jobs for DC as they head into late teens/early adulthood

That said, close family moved to one of the places you mentioned and love it there. DC very happily raised there, found jobs and all very happy.

Having lived all my life on the West Coast, including Kintyre, it is a 3 hour drive from Campbeltown to Glasgow (not 4-5 as mentioned by in a PP).
The secondary school in Campbeltown is a new building, finished within the last couple of years. The catchment for the secondary school would mean a maximum of a 45 min journey by school bus each (shorter by car for after school clubs). There is also a lot of money being invested in the area, unfortunately due to it being classed as a deprived area, but this does mean that house prices tend to be cheaper.
Music (pipe, brass and wind bands) features a lot in the area, and there are a number of sport and dance clubs.
The downsides, it is 3 hours drive from Glasgow, and you have to drive for 4 hours before your any further south than where you started from! Roads are not great. No online supermarket shopping, but the local co-op has a localised delivery service. Carriage charges for getting anything larger delivered can be a very high. Midges, all over Kintyre in my experience!

Travel would be dependent on weather so the Winter months September to June travel would be unreliable.

They just changed the legal definition of women to ‘whoever says they are one’.

So I’d consider the fact you are probably going to encounter a fair few opportunists/penis in changing rooms, public toilets, hospital wards, school toilets etc.

If there is a six foot bloke in the swimming pool changing room with a beard and an erection then you will not be able to complain. As long as he refers to himself as a woman.

Thank you everyone for your replies - some things we hadn’t thought about so it has been really helpful. We will go and look at areas in more depth hopefully nearer the end of this year, if lockdown allows. From responses I’m thinking somewhere on the Kintyre peninsula. I thought I’d written such a long post but it’s not until the replies came in I realised how much I’d missed out! We live in a village in the midlands, certainly nothing like as remote as the Kintyre peninsula, but I wouldn’t want to move to a town or city, we like just stepping out our door and walking - we want to be more remote not less, since someone asked about remote/outdoors. Until recently I was a primary school teacher by profession so if the commute doesn’t work out, I have teaching to go back to and temp jobs seem to come up quite regularly around the peninsula but is perhaps something I need to consider going back to rather than staying in academia. A few people mentioned the children, they are involved in conversations and will form a big part in our final decision, whatever that may be. Football and internet are their main concerns. Our internet here is poor and we get no mobile signal so apart from internet not-spots I think it won’t be worse than here but probably not the better internet they are hoping for! There seems to be active football teams in Campbeltown so I’ll have to check those out. That’s the only formal sport they do, everything else is family activities nothing serious. My main concern is/was midges but I don’t think coming during the worst months will be possible during the pandemic so I will check the midge map online and do some more research. I know they’ll be there, it’s just how bad it is in that area that I need to prepare for. Thank you again everyone, if anyone else has any info that’d be great. I know it seems a weirdly negative thread but I like to prepare for the worst!!

Some notes on your update. It's possible to live in a town of 10000 or more and still have nature on your doorstep in Scotland.

If you trained in England as a teacher , I believe there is some form of retraining required to teach in Scotland. They don't automatically accept you as able to teach here.

Also, check if where you are planning to move to is friendly. There are some areas that would be unwelcoming of English people. Sad, but true.

Also the commute sounds horrific.

Can I ask why the Kintyre peninsula specifically? There are lots of other remote areas in Scotland.

Also, and I don't mean to be patronising, but a village in the Midlands is nothing like a truly remote area in Scotland.

To add, your 13 year old would likely be S2 or S3, which means they wouldn't start N5 yet. It's not like GCSE's, N5 is a one year course done in 4th year.

An 11 year old who is turning 12 after any time up from now until next February would be going in to S1 (= Y8) in August. And a 13 year old turning 14 in that period would be going into S3 (Y10).

If their birthdays are in January/February (and possibly November/December), they could elect to go into the year below - but I think in practice that depends on what year they'd been in in England.

If they only turned 11 or 13 since March, they'd be going into P7 or S2.

There are many places in Scotland you can just step outside your door and walk. I live in a village just outside Glasgow and can walk straight into woods and countryside.
Living in the midlands it is presumably easy to get to hospitals, airports, cities . I do wonder if your dad will find the peninsula quite oppressive as they get older , and if they want to go to uni it will be a long commute for them.
My ds are Scottish , and I think they would have struggled there in their teenage years .
What do you want by being remote- you can get peaceful small communities with wonderful scenery and outdoor access without it being quite so inaccessible, and with less of a culture shock