Hello,
I'm re posting this E-mail that my wife received about Edinburgh. It has great info for anyone looking for a place there.
I lived in Edinburgh from 2003-2006 (just moved back to the US) and also worked as a nursery nurse most of the time, part of it for a temp agency so I got to know quite a few neighborhoods and families during my time there.
My husband and I stayed in Gorgie, which was cheapish,close to the city centre and perfect for us but I wouldn't necessarily sing its praises for school children. The teenagers kind of run rampant in that area and as the heart of Gorgie is the Hearts Football stadium, a fair amount of drunk and rowdy men frequent the area (oh, how I miss it though....really!).
However, I worked in the Colinton area a substantial chunk of my time in Edinburgh and absolutely loved it. If we had stayed there long enough to have children I would definitely have considered that area. It is considered the South side of Edinburgh and it fairly suburban. The children from my nursery graduated onto Bonaly Primary or Colinton Primary and from what I heard from parents they are both good primaries. Bonaly is an area just south of Colinton and full of young families. Colinton village itself is very picturesque and quaint and I loved it. I guess you could say the area is well served by buses, but the service is not as good as Gorgie or say Leith. Its still pretty close to the city centre though and I would definitely reccomend it.
I also lived in the Newington Area of town for awhile. Its RIGHT next to the city centre and is abundant with services and shops and bars and restaurants and is very studenty. I am not sure I saw too many school children and it can get noisy at night but is still a lovely area.
Another studenty area that I had friends in but is really nice is Marchmont. It's close to Newington and Edinburgh University and is architecturally outstanding. I don't think there is ever a shortage of flats there. It's pretty quiet considering its local and I worked at a few nice nurseries down there. It's close to Morningside as well, which is renowned for being full of dowdy housewives and well to do families...Morningside is a very family oriented area, I would say. I dont' have much experience with it but it is extremely well served by buses, close to the centre, but they have everything you need right there anyways. I think this area can tend to get expensive.
My mother in law lives in Corstorphine and that is also where my hubby grew up. It is west of the city centre and near Murrayfield, which is a good place according to that arctle link Mark posted! Corstorphine is lovely....very surburban and I don't think I could ever live there for that reason. It has it's own distinct feel, however, with their own "high street" and alot of shops, including large outlets like a Tesco superstore, if thats your sort of thing. Its also right next to the zoo, a private hospital and Corstorphine Hills which are beautiful and a nice nature walk. According to my husband, the schools are good.
Still going strong here....
My best friend lives in Comely Bank/Stockbridge and this is a main bit of the New Town. It can be expensive but they have managed to score a deal, so it can be done. I suppose this is the bourgeious part of Edinburgh, full of semi-well off intellectuals or something, but I am being totally stereotypical and am trying to avoid that. There are a few pretty prestigious private (not state run....i never know how to put that because public in the UK means private in the US, yadda yadda) schools in this area including Fettes, where Tony Blair went. I don't know what that says about the state run primaries in the area, I couldnt even hedge a guess. Neat area,though, I really like it.
I also spent a fair amount of time working in the area between Wester Hailles and Balerno. While I would not reccomend Wester Hailes, Balerno is a suburb that feels like a small town well outside of Edinburgh. It is surrounded by wide expanses of wilderness and feels like its own little place. I liked it and i hear property prices are really good here but it can be a bit of a trek from the city centre. Schools are pretty good from what i hear.
Well, I guess I will stop now because this is getting sort of long winded. If you have a specific place in mind and want to know my opinion just let me know as I love talkign about Edinburgh ( i miss it so much) and managed to work my way around it a bit. Anyways, yeah, hope this helped a bit.
One more thing, you didn't say what uni you would be attending but Colinton is close to Napier and Marchmont/Morningside would be really close to Edinburgh Uni.
