Retiring to Scotland

[GinJeanie]

My DH and I sometimes talk about moving up as have always adored Scotland - it's where we've always spent most of our holidays over the years. We have family in East Lothian, Fife and Coll who we visit, but have no fixed ideas about where we'd want to settle. We're late 50s. DH seems to want to live in the middle of nowhere but I'd like to be somewhere with community, my fear being that retirement could be quite isolating if we weren't careful...
Does anyone know of beautiful places to live which aren't too isolated and where it would be possible to integrate? Interested in insider views I guess. Many thanks

Thank you for all your messages... am so grateful 💕. It's confirmed my feelings that IF we make a move like this it'll be to a village or small town. We're in a busy city atm so can see this would be closer to DH's dream. I've lived very rurally in the past and am looking for something calmer. Caution needed though...
The Independence issue is an interesting one. I'm half Scottish (although born and bred in the Midlands so basically English 😆) and have family in Scotland who are pro- they talk about it sometimes. DH was based in North Wales for a time and I know the anti- English sentiment in those days was a big problem!

Go to Beauly its a village about 39mins from Inverness. Lovely place very friendly. Nice shops, places to eat out. Beautiful country side. You could go to Inverness for a days shopping or go up north. Train and bus routes.
Oh and when there's not Covid there's an all ages music festival once a year.

30 min not 39

Findhorn would be a lovely place to retire. It's got its own micro climate as well.

@Namaste6

As *@millymoo1202* has written, Aboyne, Banchory, Royal Deeside area is absolutely stunning. Gorgeous summers, walks, great amenities and sense of community. Another great area to consider is the Moray coast - Elgin, Nairn, Forres. A previous poster mentioned the long summer nights the further north you go - very true - it makes for long summer days. With relatives on the Moray Coast we hear about decent Heath care in that area too.

I didn’t think a gorgeous summer is ever possible in Scotland. I’ve never been to Morayshire but had a friend who spent summers on the coast in Morayshire every year in a static caravan. She loved it.

@7to25

I think you have to carefully unpick fantasy from reality. We are a bit older than you so it is on our minds. Think about access to healthcare. Social activities Shopping, every day and occasional Life after car ownership. Don't forget that the weather is worse in Scotland. So many friends our age have done a double move when the first move didn't work out.

That is interesting. We are about to move again as we chose badly first time.

Renfrewshire villages are great. Close to the country, but not more than 30 mins away from airport, hospital, shopping, city. Most of the villages have pubs, cafes and shops but also have great walks. Close to Loch lomond etc.

We've just been through this exact process OP. DH would happily live on one of the Hebridean Islands or anywhere else equally remote, whereas having a community was really important to me. As a compromise, we looked right across Scotland from Argyll and Bute to Perthshire. We loved lots of the properties we viewed in A & B, and fell in love with one in particular. You get more house and incredible views for your money there. However, the reality is that it's very wet, midges can be a problem in many areas, services can be much more difficult to access and if you need to use the A83 you'll be queueing for the convoy for large chunks of your life.

Whilst our hearts lay on the west coast, our heads realised that as we get older, easy access to shops, healthcare and other services will become more important. 10 years ago, we'd have gone to the west coast in a heartbeat. Now though, as we head towards our 60s, we're buying in Perthshire, on the edge of a small town. It's not what we imagined, but we've future proofed ourselves. We can walk to town, everything's on the doorstep, there are great transport links (including trains), the coast is an hour away, it's much drier and sunnier, and we have a community. Not too far to Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh or Glasgow either. Whilst the area doesn't make our hearts sing in quite the same way, its still beautiful and we can visit all the remote areas without living in them. We've been renting in Perthshire whilst searching and I'd recommend being able to explore areas over time to get a feel for places and what might suit you.

Apologies that a lot of this post is just about our experiences, but our scenarios seem so similar. All the best with your search. Oh and one other thing - we refused to get dragged into the bidding process. We sold and then rented to be in the best position, made sure we viewed anything we liked really quickly, and rang the estate agent with an informal offer straight after viewing. They were happy to negotiate directly with the vendors for us. We made clear that we wouldn't be putting in a bid if the offer wasn't accepted. That actually worked 3 times (we had to withdraw 2 offers for various reasons). It's definitely worth a try. Several estate agents told us they were worried for the financial future of buyers who had bid wildly over home report value to secure a property in the current overheated market.

Reviving this thread. I wonder if anyone has retired to Pitlochry and if so how it worked out?

I was going to suggest Aboyne. Gorgeous old houses, nicely done new builds if you prefer that, a heat trap in summer, beautiful walks along the Dee/a bit further inland in the Cairngorms, a local hospital. Very heavy snow in winter at times though.

But since you're asking specifically about Pitlochry! My friends' parents retired there from Edinburgh and love it.

That’s interesting. What do they like?

I'm afraid I don't really know. I don't know them, that's just what my friend has told me.

Thanks that’s helpful

Did you make a decision OP?