Relocating to Aberdeen - anything I should take into account?

[MadAdopter]

I am hoping to relocate from Wiltshire to NE Scotland in the next 12 months or so with my 6 year old daughter. School choices (private) all seem to be in the city so need advice on commuting from villages as we don't want to live in the city, looking for a rural property as we have lots of animals.

Research seems to suggest driving into central Aberdeen is easy, but is this true?

Are there any areas that are better for commuting by car from?

All suggestions welcome as it feels a bit overwhelming at first not knowing the area well yet.

Thanks!

sigh this post is not about rewilding - I am surprised I know more about it than Scots do - it is your nature after all. Work in wildlife conservation and you will quickly find out that restoring habitats and wildlife requires money and if we can get people to invest it in for the future that is a good thing. End of discussion on this thread.

Have you stumbled across ASPC for looking at properties?

Lol how dare she earn a living from something she's passionate about... ... 😆

Just dont be one of those 'let's reintroduce wolves' knobheads and it's all good op.

Yes just found that today on another thread, really helpful!

@MadAdopter you are welcome to DM me for more info. I moved to Aberdeen 44 years ago and DC went to Gordons and Albyn. I live semi-rurally (no buses) and worked in the education sector so know a bit about state schools here.

I have friends who live in the shire and they’ve just spend over a week snowed in and it’s not uncommon for them to loose power when there’s storms, to the point that one family have bought their own generator. Their kids have all gone to small village primary schools and flourished. One set went private in Aberdeen for secondary and the others to local high school and the eldest have both just gone to top universities.
I would look very carefully at public transport links to future proof your DD growing up as I don’t think they really got to enjoy the great outdoors on their doorsteps until lockdown because they were too busy doing long commutes and ferrying kids to activities! Even now their teens are quite isolated in the holidays as they don’t have a public bus any more and live several miles from the train into Aberdeen.
some of the commuter towns such as Inverurie have been rapidly developed in recent years with a lot of new housing but other services haven’t necessarily caught up with the population growth.

Don’t really think that sort of sneery attitude will be a hit up here to be honest. 🙄

was just thinking same.

It is. It can be a totally different world a couple of miles in. And I still consider it a small trade off for the enjoyment living near the sea brings me.

Aberdeen traffic is frustrating. It's not that mental in volume but there are pinch points. I can drive almost 30 miles in just over 25 minutes and don't hit a traffic light. It can then take 35 minutes to go three miles across the city. The AWPR has improved things but it's a city where it only takes a lane closure on a key road to clog everything (especially as the city council are fond of shutting off bridges and major roads all at the same time).

Have you considered Lathallan near johnshaven? About 50 minutes south of the city. If you don't need to be in town every day for work then avoiding it is good.

The Mearns countryside is lovely. More rolling hills and distinct from north of the city (the Highland fault line runs through Stonehaven).

Deeside is beautiful but worse in winter and less accessible on train than Stonehaven which is on East Coast mainline. Useful if going south of just for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Similarly from the villages around Lathallan you can get to Montrose in 15 minutes where it's easy to park for the station.

If you go on visits to the city centre schools, watch the bloody bus gates.

It's a lovely area. There are loads of options for nice places to live in the countryside and you don't need to go that far from the city to find them.

Take advice from a local solicitor on house prices. They market isn't what it once was. People in Edinburgh will talk about properties going 15-20% over but that's unusual in the north east at the moment, bar a few select pockets. Despite being advertised as offers over, they won't necessarily achieve it.

Their estate on Loch Ness has wild boar.

Just trying to understand, that's all.

Selling carbon offsets actually helps companies avoid carbon reduction and all that.

Agree - this is a good area for commuting from. And yes the snow last week was the worst its been for a number of years but even so - when we had very little ( around Stonehaven) colleagues around Inverurie/Kintore had much more and commuting was more challenging.

If I were you, id forget about Aberdeen and look at just north of Perth or thereabouts for Glenalmond or Strathallen schools. You’ll get remote-ish living reasonably nearby and it’s also MUCH easier to access lots of the highlands and the west coast from there. Aberdeen is so far out of the way of the bulk of the highlands. Even somewhere near Gordonstoun in Moray feels like it would be a better fit, as that would offer you easier access to a broader spectrum of the highlands.

You're always going to get a few idiots.

But Aberdeen has a larger percentage of people from England - and many other places - because of the oil industry. I don't think you'll meet much of it day to day.

that's helpful thanks, yes I have been to Moray and loved it but Gordonstoun is a bit elitist I think

Aye. But you did say that's why you want to move, and you posted the link I looked at. That's a for profit carbon credit company.

Just trying to understand.

We Scots love having all the land bought up by corporations.

Have you even ever heard an Aberdeen accent?

I am not normally sneery but that poster was annoying me - it is a common problem trying to get people to understand that protecting wildlife costs money (it is what I do for a living!)

It does but certain postcodes are usually subject to an extra delivery charge or don’t get next day delivery.
if you just want somewhere rural with access to good independent schools then don’t rule out somewhere rural outside Edinburgh or Glasgow, they have school buses that run from miles around.

No. Have you heard a Wiltshire one?

I made one polite post. I just remarked the company you linked is a carbon credit thing.

Odd thing to be annoyed about.

Yes, one of my best friends is from Devizes.

Rewilding is not why I want to move, I want to live in an area of outstanding natural beauty and be able to afford a property with land for our animals and have access to a good school. See top of thread.

You seem against corporations owning the land, but they already do (most of the Highlands is already owned by billionaires). Wouldn't it be better if they were willing to put some of their money into regenerating the local economies and protecting it for the future?

I would also agree with PP that if you have no particular reason to be in Aberdeen, Perth is worth looking at.

From Aberdeen you are having to drive round the Cairngorms to go west. Perth or parts of Perthshire (massive county and very different in terms of accessibility depending where you are) is well placed for road and rail connections to just about all parts of Scotland.

Ooh Devizes is lovely, just down the road from me.

thanks for all the suggestions on where to look, lots to think about