Moving to Ayrshire

[YseultChevalier]

Hello everyone, we are moving from London to Ayrshire this summer to be closer to family. We have family in Kilmarnock so ideally want to be close by, but finding it difficult to narrow down location with our budget and trying to find a “good” school for the kids, we have a 5yo and 2yo. We’ve found a great house in Irvine, near Annick primary school. We’ve stayed in Irvine many times when visiting family, but this has been mainly closer to the beach (which we love!), can anyone help with their experiences in the residential areas of Irvine? Troon and Ayr have been recommended to us over Irvine, but they’re just out of our budget at the moment, hopefully in the future though.

What is your budget? There are a lot of lovely places in East Ayrshire but also a lot of areas with high deprivation.

Irvine has quite a poor reputation locally and when I moved home in 2020 and considered houses in Irvine a lot of people discouraged me from buying a house there.
Having said that I regularly shop in Irvine abd don't have a problem with it. I'm not really familiar with the area you are talking about because as someone who relies on public transport and also a desire to be near the water I didn't really consider that area.
I m currently living in Barassie, having moved here from the centre of Troon, and prior to that from Glasgow. The Troon and Barassie areas are generally lovely places to live. There is a pretty wide spectrum of property prices in this area but certainly there are some relatively affordable houses available amongst the higher end and more desirable ones.

Our area is much the same so trying to be realistic about what is a “bad” area compared to a good one. Our top end would be £140k for a mortgage as this is just based on my husband’s wage for now, we did consider renting for a while, but we visit enough to know that we definitely want to move there, we’re just not very knowledgeable on the residential areas that would be better than others if that make sense. General consensus does seem to be to avoid Irvine, though family have said it’s not as bad as people make out- maybe they’re just used to it?

Thank you for your advice! Our family who live in the Ayrshire say it’s not as bad as people think, we have stayed there a few times and always felt safe, but this has been in town centre so we haven’t branched out and don’t have local knowledge if it will be good for our kids etc. We would love to consider Troon and hope to be able to upsize there in a few years, still keeping an eye on housing there though! We have about 6-8 weeks to move so really hoping something comes up

I'm from Irvine and left as soon as I could, as did the majority of my family. It's unloved and run down. Definitely look at Troon etc if you can.

I'm from Irvine and left as soon as I could, as did the majority of my family. It's unloved and run down. Definitely look at Troon etc if you can.

Irvine is an absolute shithole. I wouldn't want to live there. How about Mauchline?

Having lived in several different areas of Irvine, I’d say it’s what you make of it & you can get good value for your money in terms of size/condition of house. There are problems with anti-social behaviour & crime, and I never really felt a sense of community when I lived there especially as a mother. We moved to Largs when my son was 16 months & I’d never consider returning to Irvine as the quality of life is completely different here, despite still being in North Ayrshire. However, if you’re moving from London, you’ll likely feel different as you’ll be viewing things from a different lens & I can certainly see the appeal. I actually lived near Annick Primary School at one point , it’s apparently one of the best primary schools in North Ayrshire. I’d check if the house you’re considering is in the catchment area though, as not all houses within walking distance are within the catchment area. All the best with what you decide!

We are trying to move to Saltcoats or Ardrossan. Lovely little towns. Good luck with your move. Hopefully we won't be too far behind lol

We moved from London to east ayrshire about twenty years ago and settled in ochiltree, east ayrshire. Nice wee village , quiet and a good wee school .
Took a wee bit of getting used to the peace and quiet after south London .
Not by the sea like Irvine but surrounded by beautiful countryside.

Mauchline is on our list! The house in Irvine just so happened on come on the market this week which is why we were considering it, maybe it’s a bit too good to be true given the feedback and we may hold out a bit longer, though we are considering just buying to get into the area and get the kids into school so that we can shop around a bit more over the next couple of years… weighing up if it’s worthwhile!

Fingers crossed it all goes well for you :)

We have driven through :) it’s a lovely village :) yes I think it will be a completely different way of life from what we are used to, but we’ve had our time in the city and have been trying to leave for a couple of years now, my husband’s job starts soon so we’re hoping we can just go for it :D

Hi, thank you so so much for the honest advice, we are very much used to living on the side of a not so great area with a big mix of different backgrounds, so I’m wondering if it’s so different from what we’re used to… We would also need to weigh up if it’s something that will affect us in the short term. In the long term we are hoping to upsize, I’ve always wanted to live in the countryside so hoping we get there one day. So glad for you that you were able to move and find somewhere to suit you and your family! I did want to look at Largs but I think the commute for my husband might just be too long :(

I grew up in Irvine. I lived in a very rough, deprived council estate area. I had a good experience at the state catholic school but struggled when went to secondary due to behaviour of other kids. However the new catholic secondary is called St Matthew’s and it’s doing very well on the league tables comparatively to other schools in the area so feeder schools into that secondary could be an option.

My family moved to stanecastle now and it seems like a nice part of town and is close to Ellington park which is gorgeous.

myself and my family (whole family are from Irvine) have never really had major problems with crime. There are a lot of drugs and drug addicts around though. I’d also say that when I was there it wasn’t very tolerant of difference (racial/sexual). But that might have changed now.

overall I wouldn’t go back there as I had some bad experiences at secondary and also prefer more diversity. I wouldn’t say it was a scary/ dangerous place though.

Thank you so much for your honesty, and I’m sorry to hear of your experience at secondary school. From the sounds of it, we will be ok for a few years and then may need to look elsewhere. Where we live now seems very similar, so I’m hoping it goes ok, but we just need somewhere as a starting point. Where have you moved to if you don’t mind me asking? Really far away or still close by ish? Diversity is a major factor for me, so thank you for the heads up with that, we will definitely need to consider for the long term

pretty far-Edinburgh!

It’s hard for me to see it objectively- because childhood experiences mixed in.

i can tell you where I’d avoid. do you know which area your house would be in?

Hello, I’m from Irvine and moved back here having lived elsewhere in my 20’s, my husband has lived here his whole life.

To give a balanced view - yes, the town has deprived areas (I grew up in one) and problems with drugs and anti-social behaviour. I would never live in the town centre or in certain areas of the wider town.

However, it has a beautiful beach and harbour area which has seen lots of improvement over the last decade. We have a wonderful country park (technically in Kilwinning but very close to the area you mentioned). There are excellent transport links to Glasgow & Ayr and plenty of shopping options.

I live in the Montgomerie Park area which is close to where you mentioned. There’s a new primary school just opened last year and starting to see a real sense of community here.

You mention diversity - I wouldn’t say Irvine is an overly diverse place but then again I don’t think anywhere in Ayrshire is.

I would personally choose Irvine over any of the 3 towns area (among the most deprived areas in Scotland) or Troon. Troon is great for a visit but I just wouldn’t want to live there.

Happy to answer any questions but as I said, I’ve lived elsewhere and chose to move back home and buy a house in Irvine - no regrets!

West Kilbride?

I grew up near Irvine, it’s not that bad but the train station is in a weird location. If you travel to Kilwinning for the Train good luck getting parking space. It depends which part of Irvine.

Do you mean ‘Eglinton Park’?

Lovely little towns? Ha ha ha good luck with that! Grew up beside Saltcoats and escaped at the earliest opportunity

Cant be any worse than where I'm currently living. Nightmare!

It's convenient for the Waverley

I grew up in Ayrshire. Every town in Ayrshire seems to think most other towns are utter shitholes. The reality is most are fine. They have good and bad areas but aren't that bad. Aside from the oldoming towns like Drongan, Daily or Auchinleck. Those are isolated inbred shitholes with a huge unemployment problem and more drugs than Colombia.