Moving to Scotland on retirement- good idea or not?

[Lansonmaid]

Our daughter moved to Brechin 4 years ago for work and son is hopefully going to move to Scotland too. We currently live in the South West of England, I'm about to retire and DH is 10 years older. Our interests are walking, sailing, basically outdoors type stuff. I like choral singing as well.

What's healthcare like, will we be able to make friends? Any ideas / thoughts welcomed

You did say that Scottish pubs are awful so you did generalise though you said that you can’t speak for every pub.

I do think that England offers more choice(Much larger population) and perhaps does them a little better but as someone who doesn’t drink there are plenty of nice pubs in my area that I’m happy to visit for a lunch or dinner so I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Scottish pubs are awful.

Maybe you picked the wrong town to live?!
I've visited many a pub and cafe across the UK. To have a whole town without a pub that does food is highly unusual, especially one in Scotland.

Hospitality across the UK is changing and a lot of pubs have closed across the country, not just Scotland.

Hopefully the OP will find somewhere that ticks the boxes on her list. As Phil and Kirstie say it's all about the location.

Excluding drinking pubs entirely, a nice English country pub just has a completely different ambience to a nice Scottish pub. Seating and music is a big part of it I think.

There are many microclimates too. I once moved 25 miles and went from dining outside 100 nights a year, down to 5 or 10.

None of this is major stuff that should influence a life move though IMO

Perhaps if you’re just drinking but if you’re having a meal then I’ve sat in plenty of pubs in England for meals and most just felt like a Scottish pub that does nice food. I haven’t noticed any real difference.

To be fair to @RaraRachael what she is describing is correct for some Aberdeenshire towns which aren't also tourist destinations.
The towns which naturally get a lot of visitors (both Scottish and overseas tourists) tend to have a reasonable choice and that's proven with the link to Aviemore pubs.
North East towns have also seen a big downturn he last 8 years with the downturn in the oil industry and price so where towns used to have good options because people were spending money now there is very few and the ones that are left are reliant on visitors rather then continual local population as there just isn't the same money available.

Most towns in Aberdeenshire have seen a downturn in house prices too exceptions being Royal Deeside (Banchory Alford Ballater etc) Stonehaven and Portsoy from the top of my head due to also being popular visitor places.

the sunniest and driet place in Scotland is the Moray coast Nairn Forres lossiemouth nearby Elgin etc

Nice food is the difference.

I live in Scotland and approaching retirement age,and looking to retire out of Scotland. As others have said, the weather is a big factor,NHS Scotland is in disarray with horrendous waiting lists, and it's hard to get medical or dental appointments. Public transport is sporadic at best, the roads are shocking.
However,if I was to stay here I would look at Moray as the place to be. Beautiful beaches and countryside,not too crowded.

Friend of mine has just moved to Forres. The climate is much milder there. Fabulous beaches and great walks.

Low-mid 20s 😂😂😂😂 sorry OP but that’s hilarious. You’ll maybe get a week of that if you’re lucky. I read that to my DH and he replied ‘that’s a joke, surely’.

Really? You might want to try living in England.

IME healthcare in Aberdeen is excellent.

Indeed, I have found that although you have to travel for healthcare from remote corners, the healthcare is there and is OK.

In fact, it is wonderful compared with family experiences in England at the moment!

I wouldn’t underestimate the difference in the weather and how it affects mood, health and outdoor activities.

Got some friends that decided to retire early but still had teenage kids. Mixed view from them really:
Loved the scenery and outdoors and they were outdoorsy people. Kids loved that as well.
Schools were generally poor....a big shock Susie Slater used to be amazing but not an issue for you.
Healthcare....well makes England look good which takes some doing.
Tax is just one way increasing as the SNP think screwing more and more is "progressive"
Weather and climate....just awful. Wet, cold and dark more often than not.

So,e nice cities like Edinburgh and Perth.
But given your reason for moving and always in Cornwall it may be worth it....but crikey the weather will be different to what you are used to

I think the problem is the generalisations here. The Highlands alone are the size of Belgium. Weather here is much sunnier and drier than Glasgow and the West, for example. Feb was pretty much all sunshine, cold yes, but dry. So, it depends on where you move to re how much rain you'll get.

After reading the pp and thinking about this thread you should stay in Cornwall. Lovely for your family to visit on holiday and vice versa.

Even though John swinney has stated that the winter fuel payment for all pensioners irrespective of their finances will prevail in Scotland it does not seem to have materialised.
Retirees love the free prescriptions and eye tests but this does not seem to be enough to sway young people to stay. The only people moving to Scotland seem to be retirees and with all kindness and respect we have enough. We are haemorrhaging young people.
most graduates I know have gone/going to England or Australia to get the stable jobs with good career progression. There does not seem to be enough opportunities in Scotland. It’s a mockery to the vast majority of undergraduates and postgraduates who then end up working in retail or temporary contracts with the council and holyrood.
even Scotland’s rugby squad have almost double the amount of foreign players than the other countries in the six nations.

I think this is a good point. Many of our graduates move out of Scotland for higher wages,lower tax and more opportunities. My friend's two sons are junior doctors,neither living or working I Scotland. Same applies to most others I know.

FIL had to move to England to get the drugs he needed on the NHS. ( Dementia related)

I thought this too!

@Hedjwitch yes, higher tax in Scotland I forgot about that!
both my dc have graduate jobs in England; one in engineering and one in teaching. Only one of their Scottish friends has secured a graduate job (engineering Aberdeen).

its hilarious how some of you think Brechin is so isolated though! Central belt group think really does not give the impression that we are all one cohesive country.

I just wish that someone in government in Scotland would realise that forever increasing taxes is never going to enable business to thrive or people want to live there. They have also created a perverse incentive for those in the boarder areas to move over to England

I'm fortunate enough to earn at a level where I'm the hardest hit by Scotland's income tax rates.
To me it's a modest price to pay for living here, and the increased cost of housing, water bills and suchlike would make living south of the border likely more expensive anyway.
I don't buy it's only old people moving here - I've under 30's moved up to join my team at work, have mid 20's neighbours who moved south for graduate raining and uni and are back as soon as they can from crowded, expensive southern England. Thier words, not mine.

statistically i think migration swings younger. Older folk don't tend to move much

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/migration-flows/

these figures from the national records of Scotland are interesting and would support there is a net loss of younger people in their mid/late twenties. It is quite difficult to read on a phone screen and the latest year is 2021-22 but there does seem to be a trend of net loss in these years which does not seem to recover in the later years.

I only looked at internal migration from Scotland to rUK not international.