Moving to Inverness from Lincolnshire

[WorthyReader]

Hello, I am looking for some advice and views. We are looking at relocation to the outskirts of Inverness from Lincolnshire. My parents already live up there and we have visited a lot on holidays prior to the moving. We love the area it is beautiful has anyone else done this move with young kids and how did they find it?
I think I am overthinking as my main reason to move is to be closer to my parents. I have a 7 year old and 2 month old girls my oldest daughter hates the idea of moving schools and away from her friends which makes it hard. But k feel the work life balance will be better up there.
Any advice? Is there enough for kids, days out etc

Moving to a rural area meant there were few teams to compete against if your dc played team sport

I’ve never heard anyone say ANYTHING positive about Peterborough!

We have to travel all over for the league sports. It’s hours in the car now they are at a decent level.

I don't really look upon the University of the Highlands and Islands as being on a par with other Sottish Universities.

Aberdeens not far away

Yes only 104 miles with just the last 16 miles being dual carriageway.

It takes just as long to drive to Aberdeen as it does to get to Glasgow & Edinburgh.

We always give ourselves 3 hours for the journey. It’s not dual carriageway, Nairn is now even slower to get through and the rest it hit and miss.

It's ridiculous to think that the A96 is the main road from Aberdeen to Inverness yet it still goes right through the middle of 3 towns.

If it was in the central belt the whole thing would have been dualled long ago.

Well yes roads will be smaller where there are fewer people

The lack of safe roads and good connections between cities is one of the main reasons that lots of Scotland doesn’t flourish in the way I think it could.

I just learned the hassle the other day of going from Dundee to Inverness. It’s not an easy journey.

Inverness absolutely should have a decent Uni and great facilities. It’s a lovely town.

There may be fewer people but I'm sure the A96 has a very high death rate per head of population. Barely a week goes by without a fatality.
I'm a safe driver but I can't do anything about the idiots and dangerous drivers on that road. Every time I'm on it I see a near miss.
There has been talk of dualling it for years but the Greens put a stop to it

There was a death just last night. It’s a terrible road. This was after the 3 car crash a few days ago that closed it for most of the day.

I also noticed today UHI have lost 6,000 students this year. That’s about 15% of the student body and the uni are currently in redundancy talks.

it is still four hours away from the major cities
I take it you don’t live in Inverness (or know much about it) Glasgow just over 3 hours Aberdeen the 3rd biggest city in Scotland about 2 hours 20, Perth ditto.
My family live just outside Inverness they never have problems getting milk all year round or any food they just don’t recognise your description. The COOP hacking affected all stores including my friends local in London.
I live in SW Scotland I’m would say it’s significantly more remote land less well resourced here than Inverness and its surrounding areas there are also significantly less tourists in the SW (one of the reasons I’m reluctant to move there) but inevitably tourists attract services infra structure etc. Quick Look at statistics it’s on a par in terms of accidents etc with the notoriously tedious A75 as someone said a million times better than the hideous M25.

I’m afraid that’s simply not true (not that I care but I do loathe inaccuracies😀) there were 11 between 2019 and August 2023. It doesn’t even make it into the top 15.

I said per head of population not in total. I only drive on it almost daily but what would I know.

You said to quote “barely a week goes my without a fatality” so you clearly do not know about this. You can request information about the number of fatalities on any A road in Scotland which is where I got my figures from 😁.
I also did a speed awareness course we were asked how many road fatalities there were in the whole of the UK most people said 20000 30000 intact in 2023 it 1711 then we were asked where they were most likely to occur everyone said motorways wrong again over 50% are on rural roads.
Lastly I got information on A75 frankly like you I thought 20+ deaths a year (I work in as area affected by this) I was completely wrong it’s 2-3.
I agree the A9 and the A96 are a PITA my family travel on the latter everyday as is the A75 although nothing quite the M25.

Personally, I find Inverness a way nicer place to live than Peterborough, even given the disadvantages listed here (I am a Londoner in rural Cork and we have many of the same disadvantages here - I had also lived in Bearsden for some time as a child, which I loved). The main thing that would put me off the Highlands is the calibre of the schools: you would get better in Central Belt, such as Dunblane High School.