Relocating to Scottish borders

[Chipsahoy]

Happy Sunday all.
Our home is for sale and we are planning to move to Northumberland, however in our search there we’ve seen properties we like over the border and starting to wonder if we should be looking there instead. I have family in Aberdeen so would make us closer than we are now, in the midlands.
Can anyone recommend a town or village in the Scottish Borders which is within an hour of the coast. We want to live semi rurally.
Three kids, two school age, jobs are home based and have been for ten years Plus so no commute to consider.

Thanks.

Take care you do not go from one extreme to the other. You may miss the activities.

I would be very wary as small town Scottish rural schools can be pretty bad. / not always, obviously, but I’d look carefully at the league tables. There’s a big lack of aspiration in many Scottish schools in my experience.

The problem with wanting to be in the borders and easy access to the coast is that the roads mostly run north-south and not east-west. Anywhere along the relatively new borders railway line is attracting premiums on house prices compared to nearby areas not served by the train.
I would look round Dunbar as that's on the coast and got a station on the London-Edinburgh east coast trainline but it's cheaper than North Berwick.

Morpeth is lovely. And Hexham. I do think rural issues with drugs etc can be bad north or south of the border. Schools are always tough to get right, whatever the framework there are good and bad ones in both places.

We didn't have a good primary experience and don't like how in Scotland additional support is based on a basket of hours the school gets and not the child but we've got many friends in other schools that had good experiences.

I found if you wanted to try hard they would help- they put a sixth year studies maths course on for my brother and he was the only one in it. But there was a real problem with it not 'being cool' to work hard - being called a 'snob' and a 'swot' for example - or the English girl who moved there got a terrible time with mocking her accent and singing at her to basically 'go home' pretty horrible overall. There was one girl from US who was considered quite 'cool' however.

I'm going to go a bit rouge and suggest Stirlingshire. It's not coastal but technically on the Forth and that's the sea and it's 50 minutes ish to Aberdour which I think would the nearest beach, but obviously a lot closer to the sea itself and it's a similar time to get to Loch Lomond.

Enough going on for teens, Trains to Edinburgh and Glasgow for when they want to stretch their boundaries a bit. Every sport you could imagine and loads of other activities too, decent schools, Trains to London or reasonable access to airports, half an hour drive to Glasgow city centre and under an hour into Edinburgh.

Quick access into the hills.

I've no idea what size of house or what your budget is but I can't recommend it enough.

YY countryside around Stirling is lovely, Callander and Trossachs area...Bridge of Allan is nice. Avoid Tullibody / Lenny / Towns around it though.

Wow more input thank you!
My Niece went to uni in Stirling so I could ask her about there too.
Will definitely re consider borders other than Dunbar area.

Oh budget is 330k ish and we’d need 4 bed or 3 with additional office.

It's definitely worth speaking to your niece as she will be able to give a teenage/young adult view which might be different from my view of raising DC here :)

Dunblane - This is a older established estate handy for schools and shops and train station. They are not much of a looker on the outside but plenty rooms and fine inside (mostly :)) and in budget

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86169049#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87023305#/

Top of budget

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/100404581#/

There isn't that much about at the moment with it coming up to Christmas but fire away with any questions or post houses and we can give a view etc.

I would live here in a heartbeat though if I was in Borders mode and had the money:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78389518#/

Stirling / Dunblane really don't feel close to the sea.
Why not look at Fife? Not far from Edinburgh, for the train down to London, and lovely seaside villages and beaches, with St Andrews and Dundee handy too.
Or you could live in a nice part of Dundee - there's a nice villagey suburb of Dundee with its own beach, but I've forgotten the name.

Broughty Ferry?

South queensferry just outside Edinburgh is lovely too.
Parts of fife are nice

£330k is not a massive amount of money for 3-4 bedrooms, and if you more rural it could take a lot of property searching. I think budget might determine location.

Must be pricey up there. That would get you a large house where I am in midlands. I’m selling a 4 bed for less than that budget.

Thanks for the links and suggestions!

@WaxOnFeckOff that’s one of the ones we liked. But a bit put off the borders after this thread!

That's a lovely area and we have family raised nearby, no druggies...

Decent High school, lovely village and close to Peebles. The bus runs past that goes from Edinburgh right down through Gala etc.

Village has a few pubs, a co-op, cafe/chippy. peebles has great baker/butcher and some nice places to eat and a swimming pool etc.

It's an area I would like to retire to but I'd prefer in the village itself in case I don't want to drive and i'd still be able to get to places on the bus and have access to the shops and places for lunch and a delicious ice-cream shop.

But it's just not close to the sea which I know is a priority for you.

Did you make a similar thread for the coast of Northumberland? I know both the borders and Northumberland mainly from day trips, but it seems to me that apart from some pretty towns and villages it has a lot of deprivation.

So it could be that you can find a perfect house but then have trouble with school, especially at secondary level. From what I remember many of the Borders secondaries were quite low on the highers pass rates, which is not the whole story but it gives you an idea of how "academic" an area is.

Look on ESPC for listings. Lots of stuff in Scotland doesn’t list on Rightmove or Zoopla, but on the local Solicitor’s property centre site.

Also bear in mind the offers over system is a bit different. Lots of rural stuff in southern Scotland is in pretty high demand just now, so you might be looking at a far whack over the headline figure.

I’m so glad I posted. Really appreciate the information everyone.

I didn’t post a thread about the coast of Northumberland I don’t think? (I have some memory loss issues, so it’s. A possibility).

Northumberland seems to be popular when I search places to move on mumsnet but borders not so much hence the thread.
I know with Northumberland to avoid the very north due a bad school up there.

I think we will rent so if it all goes tits up we aren’t tied to the area.

I'd Avoid north of Morpeth, and south of Peebles tbh.
Many of the areas in between suffer the same issues
(insular, rural, poor internet / transport, poor choice of schools)

North Berwick is good for schools, easy for Edinburgh and pretty, but £.
Edinburgh itself is v expensive. Dumfries & Galloway, I know lots of parents with probs with schools there but they are SEN parents, tbf.

Renting is a good idea then you are not tied in if it's not what you hope. Good luck with it all. You might just land well / be lucky x