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! 😊😊

I think I live on the other side in south edinburgh and agree with all of this. We are super happy to have all the options - out to Midlothian or East Lothian for walks, beaches, etc or a quick bus ride into town for fringe, ballet, cocktails, whatever.

Somewhere like Ratho village Lovely with a good smallish school

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159177302#/?channel=RES_BUY

I think Ratho is very isolated given how close to Edinburgh it is. It’s in a weird no-man’s land stuck behind the motorway with one awful road in n out via the horror that is newbridge roundabout.

Why would you go via Newbridge from ratho to go to Edinburgh?

you’d go the A71 to Calder road or gogarburn.

OP - you’d get a house in Currie, balerno or ratho for that budget fairly easily, Corstorphine too if you were happy to go into town a bit. If you actually look at houses for sale it’s not that tight a budget.

If you’re looking for your DH to be 45 minutes from the city centre, tbh, you can’t go very far outside Edinburgh at all, it can take that long to drive to the city centre starting in Edinburgh , as soon as you add in the bypass or coming over from Fife it’s going to be way longer than that.

Another positive vote for Dunfermline here, with particular view to the high schools. Know lots of happy kids at both of the high schools. (sure it’s not perfect, none of them are). Advantage is that you have three high schools in close proximity if one doesn’t work out for you (Inverkeithing High is moving to Rosyth which is basically a suburb of Dunfermline).
The hit and miss thing is true, but you can have beautiful period homes with views, access to green spaces for less than a slightly depressing semi in Edinburgh outskirts.