Locating to South/East Edinburgh

[jinksy1]

Hiya! We are looking to relocate from the south of England to near Edinburgh, where my parents live (fairmilehead). We don't want to be too close to them but probably within 30 mins. Looking at places such as dalkeith, bonnyrigg, penicuik and Peebles but don't really know anything about them. Are they nice areas? Which schools are the best? Will have a daughter going in to P1 but need to think ahead about secondary as well. If anyone has any opinions on these areas I'd love to hear them! We have a pretty good budget for moving with so I don't think we should be too limited to particular areas. Both work from home but may occasionally need to travel both into Edinburgh and to London via either train at plane.

My ideal location would be a busy little village with beautiful houses and views and a good village school that's around 20 min drive to fairmilehead area. I just don't know if this exists.

Thanks for any advice!

Peebles is a lovely village, though a bit touristy. Penicuik I would not call lovely, but it is close and has a lot of generic new builds on it's way. Dalkeith has a lovely country park but not sure how the rest of it is.

I don't know how the schools are there but I remember from looking some time ago that the two best secondaries close to Edinburgh were in Linlithgow and North Berwick. If you don't mind living in Edinburgh you could go for Buckstone which is right next to Fairmilehead and has a good primary that feeds into Boroughmuir, which is a good but oversubscribed secondary.

A non official ranking list of Scottish secondaries can be found here:

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/5565713/scotland-schools-best-worst-league-table/

We don't have an official list

I would try on the coast, Gullane, North Berwick (although more of a town and a bit touristy now), Aberlady, Dirleton. All around 30 mins from your parents. The beaches and schools are very good and train to Waverley in under 30 mins where you can hop on the train to Kings X

Thanks! Yeah I am worried about Peebles being a bit touristy. Will look at the places along the coast you have suggested. I love north Berwick!!

Maybe somewhere like West Linton might suit? Pretty close to Fairmilehead. Some nice properties there and good schools as far as I know.

If you feel Peebles is too touristy then North Berwick will be a definite no!

Peebles is lovely and not too touristy compared to North Berwick. Also has fantastic schools. Best performing high school in LA.

Maybe Peebles isn't touristy during the week. We've only been there as a day trip on the weekend a few times. And currently everything seems to be busy as more people holiday home.

As badg3r says the coastal places around North Berwick are nice. They are also busy on sunny weekends but I imagine less so most other times.

North Berwick to Fairmilehead in 30 minutes is achievable at 5am on a Sunday morning when the sun is in the venal equinox - there's no way you'd be able to do it on a) a nice day or b) a normal working day. NB is horrendously over-priced too.

Peebles is a lovely town and I know friends who are very happy there, however the commute to Edinburgh or Glw is tough - but if you're going to be WFH then I would definitely think that's a go-er. There are also smaller villages around and about. like Innerleithen. That's also a much easier journey to your parents.

I don't love the 'burbs but Currie and Balerno might be worth a look? Also West Linton.

There’s little pockets of nice in Midlothian but overall... hmm... it’s not what you describe as your ideal location. I live in one of the towns mentioned.
Peebles is nice, I don’t think it’s too touristy, or Gifford in East Lothian is nice. I’ve no idea about schools there though.

The East Lothian towns above are great, also Haddington is a nice town a bit nearer Edinburgh.