Relocation from England to Edinburgh

[JAP23]

Could anyone give me any idea on areas surrounding Edinburgh? We ideally would like to be no longer than a 45 minute drive into the city. But would consider longer if it had shopping centres and family friendly things to do. We have 3 children (2 SEN) so good schools are essential. We don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere but outside a town or village near a town would be fine too. We are relocating from Cornwall and due to come and visit again in the next 2 weeks, we are considering Dunfermline/Fife & surrounding as it seems family friendly? Also considering East Lothian? Is there any areas which we should avoid altogether or any areas we should look into which matches what we are looking for? Thank you all, we will appreciate any replies and advice! 😊😊

Buy lots of warm clothes Op… the weather will be an adjustment!

We’re in East Lothian. We have a lot of sunny days and I haven’t found the winters particularly hard after 29 years down south! We do t get snow as on the coast etc.

🤣🤣 We will be all prepared for that, Cornwall just always rains🙃

@Plinketyplonks where abouts in East Lothian are you? How do you find it? Are the schools good? Thank you for your reply!

I think the schools will be an issue. There are far fewer specialist schools, expectation of mainstream but no support provided, violence is sky high, and ECHPs are not a thing. It was the endless, uncontrolled hullabaloo that my ASD child failed to cope with. After a long period of anxiety-based school refusal we have found a great private mainstream school which has saved our child. State schools here aren’t failing - they have failed.

What’s your budget? Is the 45 minutes for a commute? If so, where will you be commuting to? I live in Edinburgh, it can take me 20-45 minutes to get to the city centre 5 miles away depending on traffic, time of year etc.

As per your other post……is the 45min a commute into the city centre? If so, you need to be within the city bypass if you’re driving, and bear in mind that very few places in the city centre have parking so you might want to focus your efforts on places with train links.
budget is also critical, particularly if you need a house with 4+ bedrooms.
i would also factor in things like the airport and main train routes - it’s only being in East Lothian if you only use the airport once a year to go on holiday, but i wouldn’t want to live out there if you were flying regularly for work or in Fife I’d u regularly used the mainline trains to London etc.
how old are your kids? The Scottish school system is completely different so you need to research that, particularly if any are high school age and approaching exams.

We had a different experience to @Elephantiner . DS started school in England and they didn't have a clue what to do with him (Ofsted outstanding primary).

Moved to Edinburgh and after a rocky start, primary were amazing with him, he was diagnosed with ADHD but things had improved dramatically even before diagnosis. High school has been pretty good as well. Moving was absolutely the best thing we did.

Good luck with the move, if you give an idea of budget, that'll help. Typically your money will go further West of Edinburgh or in Fife than East.

@Namechangeforthis88 I’m delighted to hear you have had a positive outcome, it’s such a big move as a parent you doubt if your doing the right thing. Where we are living now has gone down hill dramatically, the change is needed for us. Where did you move from? Did you find it hard to adjust ?

our budget is around £650,000 by the time we have take out fees etc, but we will need a 4 bedroom property as minimum. Thank you for your reply ☺️

@MiddleAgedDread Hiya, thank you for your reply. My husband is a self employed plumber, so he wants to be close to surrounding Edinburgh in case he needs to jump onto agency work at any point, he can then pick up work around the city centre, if that makes sense? I doubt I would go into the city to much and when I would I would go via train, but I’m more focused that as long as I have things to do around a town and some retail shops I would more than likely use them than go into the city often. Our budget is around £650,000 by the time we have taken into consideration legal fees etc it would need to be a 4 bedroom minimum. we aren’t to worried about close to airports as we would only use it twice a year for a holiday and have always traveled to get to airports from where we live now. Our children are 4,9,11.

thank you ☺️

So at that budget you’re really going to be looking outside the city bypass into the Lothians and Fife.
bear in mind not everywhere has a train link to Edinburgh, places like Peebles and Haddington are lovely but no rail link and it’s a long bus ride!
I’d have a serious look at Dunfermline if I were you.
also check school details as your 11 year old might end up doing a year more in primary school than they were expecting, depending on where their birthday lands.

@MiddleAgedDreadthank you so much, Dunfermline is actually the main part we was going to look at, it seems like it has everything we need. Is there an area you would recommend? Or an area to avoid? House prices seem reasonable there. We didn’t want to rule out East Lothian so are going to have a look around them areas too. Thank you!

I don't know Dunfermline well enough to recommend areas. If i was going to East Lothian I'd want to be on the train line. North Berwick will stretch your budget but Dunbar might suit and I think the high school is quite well regarded. Or Musselburgh is much closer to Edinburgh and could be in budget.

Have a look at Linlithgow in West Lothian . 20 minutes in the train to the centre of Edinburgh, 30 minutes to Glasgow Also has The Donaldson Trust School

North Berwick is fab. It's 30 minutes by train from Edinburgh
Gorgeous beach ,great local shops .

Sadly it’s so fab that house prices are on a par with Edinburgh!
£650 for 4 beds would be tight espc.com/property-for-sale/east-lothian/north-berwick/houses/4-bed

@Lemons4171 thank you, we will look into that area whilst we are visiting! 😊😊

@ZiggyZowiethank you for your reply! As @MiddleAgedDreadhas mentioned I think it maybe tight on our budget! We may have to consider further down the coastline, or areas around Fife/Dunfermline side seems to be a good option at the moment 🤔

@ZiggyZowiethank you for your reply! As @MiddleAgedDreadhas mentioned I think it maybe tight on our budget! We may have to consider further down the coastline, or areas around Fife/Dunfermline side seems to be a good option at the moment 🤔

You’ll get more for your money in Fife and train stations and (I think) a shopping centre in Dunfermline. Livingston between Edi and Glasgow also has shopping centres including a designer outlet. Also train stations. Parts of East Lothian are nice but not much going on, you’re travelling to one retail park or into town for shops or cinema.

Well, I have no connection at all to this area but looking on rightmove, bloody hell; this looks amazing for a 4-bed within commuting distance of Edinburgh: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/164393324?utmcampaign=property-details&utmcontent=buying&utmmedium=sharing&utmsource=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RESBUY

No doubt someone will be along shortly to tell me it’s adjacent to a pig farm/ bail hostel/ in the worst ever school catchment!

East lothian is lovely but I wouldn't recommend Rosehill high in Wallyford. It's a new school but not good at all. They hace a SEN unit but are always looking for new staff which is a huge red flag imo.
In Scotland,instead of EHCP they have something called IEPs so ask the schools about the support etc with that.

I'm Midlothian, your budget is good for Lothians and I would suggest you look at East Lothian but also Linlithgow, Fairmilehead area and Balerno. Apologies to anyone here from Funfermline (Dunfermline) but it wouldn't be my choice if I had your budget. Previous poster was right to warn about the length of time from East Lothian to airport if you have to travel regularly. The city bypass is hell on earth at rush hour and you don't want to have to travel the whole of it if you can help it. There are plenty of lovely areas within easy reach of Edinburgh. I would use school information to help you decide, as not all areas will be equally great for SEN provision.

@Mmhmmn are you familiar with Dunfermline? Do you know if there is any areas to avoid? House prices seem to vary, but not drastically 🤔 from what we have seen Dunfermline would suit us, with East Lothian we worry it might be to rural to get to places going on, but don’t want to rule it out altogether. Thank you ☺️

With that budget I'd be looking at Linlithgow and South Queensferry. East Lothian is a good option too.

Dunfermline commute is probably closers to an hour door-to-door, and there are nicer bits of Fife tbh, if you want to be over that side.