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

Prescriptions are free for over 60s generally though aren’t they?

What is your budget for housing?

For the outdoor lifestyle and to be handy for Brechin/Cairngorms you could look at the Moray Coast or Aviemore/Kingussie area or Deeside (Banchory). Or somewhere like Broughty Ferry or Nairn both on the coast...

I think your weather expectations may be too high. Repeated summer temperatures of low to mid 20s do not happen, especially on the east coast. We have long winters, with a bit of summer in May and June and sometimes September. July and August are getting increasingly wet. That may be quite a culture shock from Cornwall, though the Moray coast has a microclimate.

The idea of renting for a couple of months - particularly in Jan and Feb - could be a good test for you. Maybe do a house swap?

ha ha - I generally think swings and roundabouts on whether it's worth moving to Scotland given the OP's circumstances but mentioning house swap on Scotsnet does seem like a bit of red flag given the issues with that being caught up in the clamp down on airbnbs etc!

Not on top of Airbnb debate so not sure what you're talking about to be honest, just meaning try it out at peak poor weather time and see if there's a difference to Cornwall living.

Hello, I moved up from the SW just over a year ago to the central belt (30 mins drive to Edinburgh).

I've no regrets! House twice as big for half the price, people so so nice and friendly, beauty all around us. Edinburgh is a million times nicer to visit than London IMO and everything is cheaper and calmer.

I am not a fan of the heat anyway, so the cold hasn't got to me, but I'm certainly colder than I expected. The days are long and bright generally though. Sunny but freezing mostly!

That's good to hear. This thread has certainly provided food for thought, still minded to come up, probably to the central belt. Sounds as if my shorts may not get worn too much though.....

Only if you're very hardy 😄

Ask any questions you'd like. This thread has been really mixed but my experience has been really good.

It is called a 'Scottish tan' starts at your wrists and ankles... ;-)

Honestly the first summer or 2 you will probably wear a jumper and trousers all the time but after that will probably be shorts during the day - night time definitely chillier.
I'm in the North East and regularly wear dresses and shorts in the summer but also depends on where I am going. My garden is a sun trap til about 4pm and a 19 degree day the garden often hits 25/26. The Coast is cooler due to the wind off the North Sea but inland can easily be mid 20s.

I think going to London in midsummer can sometimes feel like stepping off the plane in Spain! We are a lovely country though. If you fancy central belt, South Queensferry may be a good option for you which would give you the sailing ability and easy access to the north.

If you do decide to move, make a sheltered sunny garden a priority. It makes all the difference!

South Queensferry is gorgeous.

Around where I live, I also really like Aberdour (if village life is for you), Dalgety Bay and SQ.

The weather really differs depending where you live. I was in the west Central Belt and the rain and feeling of damp can be pretty miserable.
I'm now in NE Scotland and it feels like it barely rains - it's actually one of the drier regions in the UK, certainly drier than Cornwall. Winter didn't start early either, it was in the teens and bright sunshine for most of November.

@Upsidedownimturningit

Lovely pub lunches at The Applecross Inn.

Yes indeed! I’ve been there! It’s quite a long trek though from where I live!

Ditto!

No one else seems to realise this though.. February has been glorious.

microclimates is an understatement so it's worth spending time in an area... also garden is important, I moved 20 miles from a south facing sheltered garden to a north facing more open garden and it feels like a different country

Absolutely agree about the garden issue. I
moved from a lovely sunny house and garden to a north facing garden much further than you, but the shock was huge. I can barely ever sit out in my garden in the summer.

Broughty Ferry. On the coast. Lots of retired people. Near Ninewells hospital which is very well equipped.
access to mountains etc

Broughty Ferry is lovely

Did you move in the end? My thoughts on the chance it helps or apologies if too late. Short ‘summers’ (very), you will actually notice this more in the spring and autumn (IMO), you will feel like you won’t have one basically from where you are coming from, it’s rainy in SW England, sure and ‘wetter’ in the west of the UK and you will know this anyway (SW no stranger to storms), but you will have very few…what feels like just shorter days (yes, I am aware summer days but really you won’t notice it being lighter at 3am as sleeping anyway), but although stats show this to be the case (ie wet in all of the UK ‘west’), you might feel quite ‘damp’ a fair bit of the year there. It is quite different.
Housing will very likely be cheaper (we have lived in the East Midlands and SE and it is night and day, I wont compare with Cornwall but you will see a difference (I know Cornwall too)), as for making friends, all you can do is the same as anywhere really. I will say, again, just my opinion, it is parochial (very) in Angus in general, and to describe it, I would say things will sort of always be the way they are there (put it that way :) )

Also, sorry to say, Brechin has very little going for it imo, your age and interests etc could well vary from mine though (I mean that politely), good luck - any questions feel free to message, a lot is my opinion above but I grew up in Angus ;)

Oh, and also, watch out for the ‘NHS is similar to England problems’ - imo, this is not actually the case and very dependant on area, but what I mean by that is remember Scotland is - a very small country geographically and also population (England 10x the population but only slightly bigger land) ….sparsley populated in Scotland are much more common but NHS still has to serve this….) be mindful of comparisons to England (often by folk who have never lived there, it is what Scottish media spouts), you can inform yourself by facts online at good sources. Once you read that, you will also notice the mentions of Scotland getting a lot of free things - it means Scotland is more socialist basically (for right or wrong you decide) might or might not suit you, but when anyone there mentions ‘we get x free and England doesn’t’ ….have a tendency to nod and just smile as you will know, it’s all tax money and not ‘free’ :)

Not actually moved yet, need to get house ready to sell. Daughter wants to move out of Brechin and more towards Edinburgh for jobs. I do fancy the Borders from what I’ve seen of them. I love the scenery in the west but I gather the east is way drier and to be honest had enough of rain the last few years in Cornwall

Was thinking of this thread the other day and the chat about temperature... Was prompted by my west coast town being 14-16 deg colder than all of my colleagues in places like London and Bristol!!

Rain in the west coast was never ending last year but has been better this year. The SEPA maps show the difference between east and west though...

Indeed I was at our head office (SE England) this week and discussing that the SE with climate change is going to be a pretty tough place to live in the next 10-20 years, and that north England and Scotland while seeing climate change (particularly increased wind and storm events) will actually be on average a more pleasant place to be than SE England...