Preferrences to live in Scotland

Ive head bad things about Dingwall too, from an East Lothian girl who moved there when she married her ex, who was from Dingwall.  She said it was a pit, and the people were horrible and treated her very badly because she wasn't from there, and married one of 'their' lads.   She high-tailed it back to Edinburgh after what she calls the worst year of her life.

I believe it.  They were probably scared someone would widen the gene pool.

I don't live in Inverness, but we go there regularly, and I find the traffic to be dauntingly heavy.  Inverness seems to be growing quite rapidly, with lots of new houses all the time.  The Black Isle is lovely, but I think (as with anywhere in the North of Scotland) that you'd need a car.

Have you thought about the Scottish islands?

Have you thought about the Scottish islands?

Only one, Shetland Islands.
I will look into Orkney. It might be better. I'm looking at a map as I type and it looks like it is much closer to the mainland than Shetland.
If the archieve would work I think there was a lot written a few months ago about Orkney.
Thanks for the tip on Inverness. I look at the webcam at the bridge and the traffic doesn't seem too bad there but that is only one area.

Well the traffic is bad here compared to Orkney or any other place in the Highlands, but compared to say any other city in the UK, its not too bad.  Orkneytime is right though, it is growing leaps and bounds, though credit crunch has curtailed a lot of the building, Tulloch's has stopped a lot of it for now. 

Orkney is beautiful Jim. Peaceful, remote, and yet, not too far away. May be something to consider!

Laura,
I'm looking at the live web cam for Inverness and its getting dark fast there and its raining. Love it.

Well the traffic is bad here compared to Orkney or any other place in the Highlands, but compared to say any other city in the UK, its not too bad. 

Good point!  I guess I still think of Inverness as a town, not a city, so the traffic does surprise me every time.  The Longman roundabout and the next one, near the bus station parking garage, are my particular dislikes!  But it's nothing like as bad as Los Angeles traffic was when I lived in SoCal ...

Good point!  I guess I still think of Inverness as a town, not a city, so the traffic does surprise me every time.  The Longman roundabout and the next one, near the bus station parking garage, are my particular dislikes!  But it's nothing like as bad as Los Angeles traffic was when I lived in SoCal ...

Oh I HATE the Longman roundabout- I almost got thrown off the road there when I first started driving here! So I don't blame you there!!!!

*off topic* Orkneytime, but how were this year's Ba Games?

Oh, someone mentioned East Lothian, might be worth a look.

Aberlady and Gullane in particular, beautiful scenery, close to the water (or on), plenty of golfing and really close to Edinburgh...a bit pricey though?

If you want rural but with good transport links, you should consider Fife. It's the chunk of land between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay on the east coast. There is some really nice scenery varying from sandy beaches and dramatic sea cliffs on the coast to rolling farm hills and higher wooded hills inland. The largest town in Fife is only about 48,000 people, and most of the towns, particularly in the northeast, have only a few hundred to a few thousand; some really tiny villages have only a few houses. Fife is one of the driest places in the UK, most towns have at least a bus service, there are much better rail links than in the Highlands, and even the northernmost part of Fife is only a little over an hour to Edinburgh, while to the north is Dundee which offers most of the amenities of a good-sized city. The town I live in has a population of about 8500 and has a farm shop, a farmer's market once a month, a biggish Tesco, a Lidl, a Co-Op, two fishmongers, several coffee shops, a garden centre, Argos, really good Chinese and Indian restaurants, a couple of chippies, some pubs, etc., and it also has a train station on the East Coast mainline with at least one train an hour to Edinburgh and Dundee plus numerous buses. There is a fair amount of furnished rental accommodation available so you don't really have to worry about renting furniture, or if you were buying a house or renting unfurnished, we got a lot of good quality but not too expensive furniture from places like Gumtree.com. It really is great!

*off topic* Orkneytime, but how were this year's Ba Games?
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Well, the Uppies won all four of the Ba' Games as usual.  I think it's been 5 or 6 years since the Doonies won.  Apparently, it was weird at the Christmas Day game -- for the first time the Boys' Ba' Game of the morning was still going on when the Men's Game started in the afternoon, so there were hundreds of players all dodging each other in the streets, trying to figure out who belonged to which ball.  The Boys' Game lasted for three and a half hours!

We didn't go this year, as the weather was so good that we were taking a long walk ...

for the first time the Boys' Ba' Game of the morning was still going on when the Men's Game started in the afternoon, so there were hundreds of players all dodging each other in the streets, trying to figure out who belonged to which ball.  The Boys' Game lasted for three and a half hours

Wow, that must have been insane!!! I can only imagine some poor 14 or 15 year old lad getting creamed by the big men. 

Glad there was good weather on Christmas for the Ba Games and even better that you got to go on a long walk.

Bit of a old thread, but you mention Dingwall in here somewhere, do not be fooled it is a hole of a place to live, all family business and connections. I would avoid it like the plague you will be treated pretty bad if your not from there to the point of being hounded out, i was born and brought up there and it is a hard place to live and is gettng worse, more and more violent for example, yeah it might be ok for a few weeks but it will soon go way downhill, it is a small village but is riddled with drugs and inbreeding and has a strong anti-outsider attitude. Oh and don't be suprised if you find a lot of Highland villages/towns like this, i am not trying to put you off rather i hope it works out for you but as a former native i know how funny people can be up there. After living in Glasgow for a few years now i can tell you that Glasgow is easy to live in compared to the Highlands.

For example in these small towns if you do get into any bother then how are you going to deal with it??  Say your not happy with the job the local garage did on your car or some other similar situation, in a town of 7000-8000 people, are you going to complain??   Becuase if you do word will get round town in days that we have a complainer in town and rumours will start flying around and you will quickly find you are being ignored on the street and shunned by your neighbours people are scratching marks on your car and calling your names behind your back, what are you goig to do now, hope people will show their good sides and have some sympathy for you??  I think not. You are going to be in a pretty tricky situation and you can foregt about using the police as that will really make you unwelcolmed etc.... So you can see how it goes.....  Yo ureally have to have the right personality to fit into these areas.. btw these things didn't happen to me but i have seen it happen many a time.

As another person who grew up in Dingwall and still lives in the area it's bad but it's not THAT ^ bad.