Visiting Fife alone, where to visit and potentially live

[Renaissancerequest]

In a couple of weeks time I will have a few days in Fife to rest my weary bones and to look at potential places to move to. Wanting: coastal, friendly, maybe arty, not too remote. Any ideas of where to see?

And perhaps where to avoid? If moving will be myself and DS and DD both in primary school

Ohh love Fife, my mum is from there so we go quite a bit but don't live there so locals may have better knowledge.

All the East Neuk lovely, Elie is where I would pick or Pittenweem though that's a bit smaller.

If you preferred somewhere larger / with more amenities and had the budget St Andrews would be a great place to live.

We have family near Cupar which I like although maybe a bit quiet and not on the coast.

Thanks, will take a look at Elie and Pittenweem

North Queensferry is nice but expensive.

Agree Elie, Pittenweem and Anstruther are all nice . Last two definitely relatively remote though. Depends what you consider remote really.

Also a LOT depends on your budget.

Make sure you investigate schools too -
A lot in some areas of fife are over subscribed and it can make it tricky.

The east Neuk is beautiful and arty but not great for public transport. Places like Kinghorn, Aberdour, Burntisland are also nice coastal towns and are on the train line. I don't know how arty they are. St Andrews is fab but expensive. Newport is lovely too and often overlooked.

Would second Newport.

We were on holiday in Fife this summer and really liked it. We stayed in Falkland which was lovely (but not on coast) and really liked St Andrews and Pittenweem which are both on coast. Anstruther also nice with EXCELLENT fish and chip shop!

Initially would like to buy something cheap so don't need a mortage (up to around 270k) as I want to focus on settling them into school and not work. Once settled, I would plan to return to work but would only want a 50/60k mortgage really so still under 350k. DS has high functioning autism, in mainstream so any primaries with good understanding SEN would be great if anyone can recommend

You will struggle with that budget in the East Neuk or St Andrews. You may need to look inland a bit.

In the case I'm not sure about likes of pittenweem etc as they'll be much smaller primaries. I think if I were you I'd look into areas you like and then contact schools directly .

Aberdour is lovely but expensive. Depends what you're wanting really - presume 3 beds at least? Do you need to be detached? Parking? Garden? do you want to live in old or new property?

Do you just have one DC to consider? Also what sort of job would you be looking for?

Just to add - we live in a house about your budget with a mortgage. We couldn't afford to move to the coast. We are in a housing estate in central fife.

Newport on Tay, Wormit, Tayport, all lovely and would likely be within your budget.

www.tspc.co.uk/Search/Property-in-Newport-on-Tay

They are nice places but the secondary school is in Cupar so would require a bus daily. It depends how OPs DS would cope with that when he reaches that stage.

Some of those places feed into the secondary in St Andrews also. A lot of the coastal areas would require a bus to the secondary school.

The schools all feed into Madras College in St Andrews, which is an excellent school. My children go there and it's about 20/25 minutes on the school bus.

Thanks all for suggestions and help :) list made :)

My sister lives in Newburgh and there's a certain arty vibe there. Property is reasonably priced too. I'm not sure what the local schools are though.

I am in Newport / Wormit if you want help. But, moved here when kids were just out of school so not an expert. Buses go by for Bell Baxter and Madras but most go to the brand new shiny school Madras.

House prices are roaring here and houses sell in days at well over upset price. We think about 10+% in some cases.

Tayport is a bit cheaper, but not much.

Thank you, I'm going to check those areas out

Elie is lovely, but taken over by holiday homes so i doubt it would be a great place to live even if it was within budget. Not sure on other east neuk villages, they are certainly beautiful and some are very arty (eg pittenweem) but likely expensive. Wormit and Newport are nice as others have said, but not quite such nice beaches as the east neuk.

Im not overly familiar with house prices, or catchments, but maybe lower largo would be worth a look?

Leven actually has a very nice beach and some bits are nice, London Links in particular. Maybe worth a look?

Prices in the East neuk coastal villages are pushed up by wealthy second home owners and retirees, I think you might not have much choice on your budget.
I wouldn't hold your breath for good SEN provision in small Scottish primaries (been there done that got the T-shirt), maybe it's improved, DS2 is 21 now but I don't think budgets have improved.

Oh dear, sorry to hear that. I've noticed when looking at the school websites hardly any even mention SEN which is different to the school websites of schools where I am currently.... having said that, they are fairly big primaries and having provision doesn't mean its any good!