West Coast is significantly rainier than the East Coast. People in more centralised parts of the country will treat you as if you’re living on another continent, and will be less inclined to visit because it’s not within an hour’s drive, means you can feel very isolated if you’re moving away from friends and family. We’re almost completely ignored by both governments. Apart from that, great if you like the countryside.
Sometimes getting items delivered can be difficult and will often have extra charges. I lived nearer the Isle of Skye, on the West coast.
Summer is beautiful but the midges can be hellish. Winter can be tough because it can be dark for so much of the day.
I find some dialects difficult to understand, Doric and also folk from Shetland. Love the diversity in language though.
You need to learn to drive quick if you want leave your town as the public transport sucks
It’s fucking fantastic. Maybe not as much opportunity as the cities in the central belt BUT my partner and I doubled our salaries moving to my home in the north east. Incredible scenery, gorgeous countryside. Wonderful community. I moved to the city for uni, loved it but I couldn’t live anywhere but the countryside now. Didn’t realise what I had when I had it.
Its better in almost every way, except for live music.
It’s the best part for sure. Sparsely populated.
Big differences from the islands, to Aberdeen, to Inverness, to little villages in Moray. But chilly weather and windy rain in the west, north and east. Lots of black pudding fortunately
Put it this way – if I ever win the lottery I would buy a house on the banks Loch Tay.
I stayed in Tiree for six months, and honestly, it’s like a different world. It’s what I imagine it was like growing up in the 60s. Everyone knows everyone, you’re part of a close-knit community, and you can rely on your neighbours. Something I kinda miss now living in Edinburgh
Things I struggled with: not being able to order something and get it the next day. You seriously need to plan ahead. The same goes for your food shop , there’s the Co-op, but that’s about it.
I was lucky to know some of the folk who worked on the ferry, so they’d bring stuff across from Oban, but it always had to be planned.
One of the things I loved was the town WhatsApp group. If you ever needed something, you’d just drop a message in the group, and chances are someone would reply with, “I’ve got some you can use.”
I never really understood the beauty of living by the beach until I left. There’s something calming about hearing water hit the shore after 8 p.m. The sky is clear, and you’re just sitting in the back garden, having a meal.
The first couple of weeks were tough, but after that, it became normal not looking at my phone ( horrendous phone signal) or watching TV ( only had basic channels) Instead, I went for walks or runs, dodging the sheep on the roads.
One thing I wasn’t expecting was the amount of weed used on the island, I never did find an honest answer but I’m convinced there is a huge weed farm on the island cos it was one thing that was never in short supply
If you avoid the white walkers in the winter and midges in summer it’s lovely
Caithness/Sutherland is beautiful in the summer apart from being mobbed with tourists but absolutely grim in the winter. Cold , wet and windy , the wind just never stops and cuts through you like a knife. Inverness is at least a two hour drive away and the roads are in horrendous condition. Lots of good very well paid jobs in the nuclear industry and housing is still reasonably priced compared with the rest of Scotland.
You’ll do most of your shopping at the Co Op.
I moved to Inverness from Cumbernauld, blows my mind it’s a smaller population but the infrastructure is much better even for food shops alone. Obviously there’s Glasgow and Edinburgh there but just to nip into ‘town’ and be back in my house in like ten minutes is great.
Tourists on the road and the A9 is a bit of a pain but simply accepting it and finding an audiobook is actually like 2.5 hours of peace.
I can see the northern lights from my bedroom window which makes a difference from wee bams with machetes.
Random Red Line Alert.
Great, every time I’ve I’ve been away I miss home, depending on your location and circumstances, private renting in hot touristy places (Inverness, Aviemore) come at a premium, I also believe Skye and most of the Western Isles and Hebrides have a bit of a housing issue when it comes to renting, many air bnbs (this is a separate debate)
Pretty much every town has a Chippy or a Chinese, the bigger ones will have a kebab shop and/or an Indian.
The Cities Inverness and Aberdeen have pretty much anything you’d need, Inverness being smaller has some more niche stuff but also less mainstream stuff.
The access to beaches and beautiful scenery can be said for both west and east coast towns, a massive amount of history and culture all over Scotland regardless of where you go, don’t sleep on the east it’s not just the west that’s scenic, winter is pretty tough sometimes, lots of cold rainy days, it will be grey and miserable for months, the snow comes and goes, it’s not as bad as it used to be but still worse than most of the rest of the country, and not to mention the WIND 💨
Within that red box there’s several different local councils, most of which are on a tight budget and lots of things don’t get funding and LOTS of things are ignored by the government, funds usually make their way to projects in Inverness and no further, the road infrastructure is pretty poor, outside of the main trunk roads you will mostly encounter single tracks with passing places, plenty of surface dressed roads, having a licence is a must
Postage and delivery of things is hit or miss, most companies will list a premium for AB, IV, KW or HS postcodes, people like DHL will next day though, Prime is 90% day after next.
Apart from this it’s in my opinion the best place in the country to live, you take a deep breath of air and can feel it in your lungs it’s fresh, and within 20 minutes you can be away from hustle and bustle and not have anything around for miles 🙌🏼
Pretty good. Cost of living is low and there’s lots of beaches.
Dark winters but you get the northern lights.
(Thurso)
I grew up in Forres which is different to Aberdeen, Tomintoul, Boat Of Garten, Findochty and so on.
It’s alright. I’m ross-shire area, some areas have dipped a bit in amenities and high streets are suffering.
It’s not like living in the south/central at all. But it has it’s pitfalls.
I can remember my cousin from Kilmarnock moved up here 30 years ago and was telling his sister how theres no Protestant/Catholic divide and nobody really cares which School you went to. (Im from Lossiemouth)
I grew up in Wick and I loved it not knowing anything else. The summer nights are great but the winters are long. It’s also far from anywhere but once you get past Helmsdale the worst is over.
I’m on a west coast island – it’s wet and windy and midgey in summer. Ferries are not always reliable. Co op shopping and trips off island can be expensive.
But I love it. I love my village, my community and the scenery.
I’ve also lived in the Cairngorms and that was nice too but I was too far from the sea.
Pretty good. Usually it takes me 30 minutes to drive to work, but if the traffic is really bad it can sometimes take 32. I live in a small town which has a cinema, decent schools, a big Asda and a Tesco Extra, but is only 5 minutes drive from fantastic beaches, forests and only a little further to mountains.
can say unequivocally that Peterhead is a shithole
Lived in Shetland for 10 years. To summarise that into 3 main points:
– Impossible to find anywhere to live because holiday homes/Air BnBs have destroyed the possibility of renting and/or starting on the housing market. Basically why we had to leave.
– Once you’ve lived on a Scottish island for 10 years, you will struggle to find fresh air on the mainland. I find this upsetting but I think most people would cope find.
– Your perspective on weather changes. Gale force winds are now “a bit of a breeze”, warm weather starts at 10c, and it’s only a lot of snow if it reaches your knees 🤷🏻♀️
As an escapee from SE England now residing in Aberdeenshire where I’ve been for many years I can truly say it’s bloody fantastic.
It’s stunningly beautiful where I live and a simple trip to the nearest town for my once weekly shop never ceases to make me smile. There is no bad scenery whichever way I look.
Purchases that can’t be made locally can be made by a trip to Aberdeen an hour away. For everything else we now have FTTP Internet and reliable (mostly) delivery services. Not bad for a wee out of the way spot in the arse end of the boonies.
There’s hardly any crime, people or traffic up here, unless you count tractors – there’s a lot of them – but the few people I do encounter are friendly and helpful but also respectful of privacy. It’s just a lovely place to live.
One of the best bits is that the rest of Scotland isn’t too far away to explore either. It was a long 10 hour drive for our holidays up here before we moved. Now we can get pretty much everywhere on the mainland within around four hours. We’ve been exploring Scotland for years and years and we’re still not bored with it.
It’s a breath of fresh air both figuratively and literally.
Grew up on the Morayshire coast!
Very difficult without a car. Moved to Edinburgh in 2016 and I was stunned at the reliability and frequency of the buses – 9 years later and I still have no plans to learn to drive!
Absolutely stunning scenery. Although, requires a car to get to many of the great walking routes. My favourite is a wee place called Logie Steading, near Forres, and there’s no way you can easily get there via public transport.
Northern lights are semi-reliable, but I’m still convinced the dolphins are a myth.
Whisky absolutely everywhere. Drive 10 miles and you’ve seen as many distilleries.
I’ve lived in the northern Cairngorms for 15 years and wouldn’t be anywhere else. It’s not too ‘remote’ in terms of facilities and community. Inverness is a 40 min drive. North East coast is same distance. Mountains, Caledonian forest, lochs – it’s paradise (as someone who grew up in post-industrial South Yorkshire).
The only ‘niggle’ would be its really hard to find housing, the rental market is dominated by holiday lets. There’s a massive scramble whenever anyone advertises a long-term let and it’s massively difficult for locals to stay in the area they’ve grown up.
Tourism is also tipping well into the ‘too much’ territory. It’s tricky because local economy needs it, and lots of aspects of tourism are actually quite nice. But since Covid it’s just gone a bit nuts. There are places I just avoid in the summer now which is a shame. But genuinely feel grateful to live here every day.
The pros outweigh the cons, 100x over. I think Northern Cairngorms is the ‘sweet spot’ for highland living.
Fine, but the lack of Government support is fairly obvious.
Less than 1k hospital beds for an area the size of Belgium (obvs cutting out Moray and Aberdeenshire out of the picture, cos whilst Aberdeen are northern, it more feels like they’re a fringe city, who’ll get the occasional government boost, but otherwise are still being shafted.
The fact your entire day could be scuppered with a road closure. A9 closed due to another bad crash? Either bin the day off, or expect to be absolutely diddled, cos you’re going to have to go round via Fort William/Ullapool/Aberdeen.
It takes HOURS to get anywhere. Inverness to Wick by train takes 4 hours 15. By comparison, in that time, you could just about drive from Inverness to Carlisle. The railways haven’t recieved any significant attention since probably the Beeching Cuts, and are desperately overdue for an overhaul and new stations being built/rebuilt in communities to assist with people having to commute for work.
The latter ones are less lack of government related, but are still issues
If you want to go literally anywhere on holiday, you’re having to travel 153 miles (from Inverness) to get to a Edinburgh Airport, as Inverness and Aberdeen’s flight choices aren’t especially helpful unless you’re flying via London or Holland
Constantly dealing with tourists, tourists and more tourists, a fair whack of which don’t have a monkey what they’re doing and will cause massive traffic problems. Gawking at the hills whilst heading a conga line down the A9 at 45mph, parking in passing places to go off on a jolly/take photos of the scenery/highland cows
Orkney here. It’s relatively peaceful, it’s a beautiful place but I have a lot of things that are cons for me.
– Small town rumour mills (not a huge problem for me now in my 30s but awful growing up)
– Cruise liner season where my town can see up to 7000 tourists dumped in it in one day
-Shopping is not cheap and you’re limited to Co-Op, Lidl or Tesco and in the winter if the weather is bad enough the shelves can get bare as the boats can’t get in to deliver goods
– A lot of places won’t deliver here and if they do they charge extortionate prices, I was quoted £100 to deliver a single bed from Wayfair but managed to find another on the same site for just £20 postage and just last week had an order for a desk chair cancelled and refunded as they ‘don’t have anyone that delivers to Orkney’
– Less activities, I’m not saying there is nothing but we just got a bowling alley this weekend and an arcade after the old one shut down roughly 15 years ago if memory serves me right
– Less shops, we have a Peacocks and Tesco for clothes, I buy 99% of mine and my kids’ clothes online which isn’t great because they can’t try it on until it arrives and may need sending back
– The cost of holidays is even higher than normal as it costs extra to have to fly or get the ferry to the mainland, even with discounts for being an islander it’s expensive
– Lack of police presence means a lot of drivers think the rules don’t apply to them, the amount of near misses I’ve had in a year of driving because of other people is insane
– Lack of specialist doctors means people often have to travel to mainland Scotland for appointments or treatment. I’ve seen myself fly to Aberdeen in the morning for a 15 minute appointment then fly back home that afternoon. We have no NICU so when my waters went with meconium in them with my eldest I had to get flown to Aberdeen via air ambulance and when he was a newborn he had sepsis and we were flown to Edinburgh via air ambulance. However, saying this, the longest I’ve waited to be seen in A&E is about 2 hours and I can phone my GP up until noon to get seen that day
– Housing, we have a huge lack of rental properties, young people are struggling to move out of mum and dad’s house because they can’t find anywhere to rent and jobs accept people from out of Orkney and these people can’t find anywhere to live to move up here
It’s not an awful place, there is a strong sense of community, like when we hosted the Island Games this year, the atmosphere everywhere was amazing. It’s definitely a slower pace up here and I’m thankful that I grew up and get to raise my children here in relative security. I personally wanted to move away when I was younger but I started a family here instead. If I could have things my way I’d move away and retire back up here. It’s not because I hate Orkney but I just feel cooped up here a lot of the time.
35 comments
It’s amazing 🤩
There’s a lot of diversity up there. Do you mean a tiny highland village or Inverness?
Short winter days, long summer days (Aberdeen)
It’s like living in south Scotland, but norther
https://preview.redd.it/lj4abc547vof1.jpeg?width=638&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00c0c1b95c58269d42c767b90f8f5035d84575a2
West Coast is significantly rainier than the East Coast. People in more centralised parts of the country will treat you as if you’re living on another continent, and will be less inclined to visit because it’s not within an hour’s drive, means you can feel very isolated if you’re moving away from friends and family. We’re almost completely ignored by both governments. Apart from that, great if you like the countryside.
Sometimes getting items delivered can be difficult and will often have extra charges. I lived nearer the Isle of Skye, on the West coast.
Summer is beautiful but the midges can be hellish. Winter can be tough because it can be dark for so much of the day.
I find some dialects difficult to understand, Doric and also folk from Shetland. Love the diversity in language though.
You need to learn to drive quick if you want leave your town as the public transport sucks
It’s fucking fantastic. Maybe not as much opportunity as the cities in the central belt BUT my partner and I doubled our salaries moving to my home in the north east. Incredible scenery, gorgeous countryside. Wonderful community. I moved to the city for uni, loved it but I couldn’t live anywhere but the countryside now. Didn’t realise what I had when I had it.
Its better in almost every way, except for live music.
It’s the best part for sure. Sparsely populated.
Big differences from the islands, to Aberdeen, to Inverness, to little villages in Moray. But chilly weather and windy rain in the west, north and east. Lots of black pudding fortunately
Put it this way – if I ever win the lottery I would buy a house on the banks Loch Tay.
I stayed in Tiree for six months, and honestly, it’s like a different world. It’s what I imagine it was like growing up in the 60s. Everyone knows everyone, you’re part of a close-knit community, and you can rely on your neighbours. Something I kinda miss now living in Edinburgh
Things I struggled with: not being able to order something and get it the next day. You seriously need to plan ahead. The same goes for your food shop , there’s the Co-op, but that’s about it.
I was lucky to know some of the folk who worked on the ferry, so they’d bring stuff across from Oban, but it always had to be planned.
One of the things I loved was the town WhatsApp group. If you ever needed something, you’d just drop a message in the group, and chances are someone would reply with, “I’ve got some you can use.”
I never really understood the beauty of living by the beach until I left. There’s something calming about hearing water hit the shore after 8 p.m. The sky is clear, and you’re just sitting in the back garden, having a meal.
The first couple of weeks were tough, but after that, it became normal not looking at my phone ( horrendous phone signal) or watching TV ( only had basic channels) Instead, I went for walks or runs, dodging the sheep on the roads.
One thing I wasn’t expecting was the amount of weed used on the island, I never did find an honest answer but I’m convinced there is a huge weed farm on the island cos it was one thing that was never in short supply
If you avoid the white walkers in the winter and midges in summer it’s lovely
Caithness/Sutherland is beautiful in the summer apart from being mobbed with tourists but absolutely grim in the winter. Cold , wet and windy , the wind just never stops and cuts through you like a knife. Inverness is at least a two hour drive away and the roads are in horrendous condition. Lots of good very well paid jobs in the nuclear industry and housing is still reasonably priced compared with the rest of Scotland.
You’ll do most of your shopping at the Co Op.
I moved to Inverness from Cumbernauld, blows my mind it’s a smaller population but the infrastructure is much better even for food shops alone. Obviously there’s Glasgow and Edinburgh there but just to nip into ‘town’ and be back in my house in like ten minutes is great.
Tourists on the road and the A9 is a bit of a pain but simply accepting it and finding an audiobook is actually like 2.5 hours of peace.
I can see the northern lights from my bedroom window which makes a difference from wee bams with machetes.
Random Red Line Alert.
Great, every time I’ve I’ve been away I miss home, depending on your location and circumstances, private renting in hot touristy places (Inverness, Aviemore) come at a premium, I also believe Skye and most of the Western Isles and Hebrides have a bit of a housing issue when it comes to renting, many air bnbs (this is a separate debate)
Pretty much every town has a Chippy or a Chinese, the bigger ones will have a kebab shop and/or an Indian.
The Cities Inverness and Aberdeen have pretty much anything you’d need, Inverness being smaller has some more niche stuff but also less mainstream stuff.
The access to beaches and beautiful scenery can be said for both west and east coast towns, a massive amount of history and culture all over Scotland regardless of where you go, don’t sleep on the east it’s not just the west that’s scenic, winter is pretty tough sometimes, lots of cold rainy days, it will be grey and miserable for months, the snow comes and goes, it’s not as bad as it used to be but still worse than most of the rest of the country, and not to mention the WIND 💨
Within that red box there’s several different local councils, most of which are on a tight budget and lots of things don’t get funding and LOTS of things are ignored by the government, funds usually make their way to projects in Inverness and no further, the road infrastructure is pretty poor, outside of the main trunk roads you will mostly encounter single tracks with passing places, plenty of surface dressed roads, having a licence is a must
Postage and delivery of things is hit or miss, most companies will list a premium for AB, IV, KW or HS postcodes, people like DHL will next day though, Prime is 90% day after next.
Apart from this it’s in my opinion the best place in the country to live, you take a deep breath of air and can feel it in your lungs it’s fresh, and within 20 minutes you can be away from hustle and bustle and not have anything around for miles 🙌🏼
Pretty good. Cost of living is low and there’s lots of beaches.
Dark winters but you get the northern lights.
(Thurso)
I grew up in Forres which is different to Aberdeen, Tomintoul, Boat Of Garten, Findochty and so on.
Fucking awesome. Less people, better beaches, better mountains, better northern lights.
It’s alright. I’m ross-shire area, some areas have dipped a bit in amenities and high streets are suffering.
It’s not like living in the south/central at all. But it has it’s pitfalls.
I can remember my cousin from Kilmarnock moved up here 30 years ago and was telling his sister how theres no Protestant/Catholic divide and nobody really cares which School you went to. (Im from Lossiemouth)
I grew up in Wick and I loved it not knowing anything else. The summer nights are great but the winters are long. It’s also far from anywhere but once you get past Helmsdale the worst is over.
I’m on a west coast island – it’s wet and windy and midgey in summer. Ferries are not always reliable. Co op shopping and trips off island can be expensive.
But I love it. I love my village, my community and the scenery.
I’ve also lived in the Cairngorms and that was nice too but I was too far from the sea.
Pretty good. Usually it takes me 30 minutes to drive to work, but if the traffic is really bad it can sometimes take 32. I live in a small town which has a cinema, decent schools, a big Asda and a Tesco Extra, but is only 5 minutes drive from fantastic beaches, forests and only a little further to mountains.
https://preview.redd.it/gtzm38ooqvof1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=380c6f5f94382cf51a6699e089fb9e9555074ca7
can say unequivocally that Peterhead is a shithole
Lived in Shetland for 10 years. To summarise that into 3 main points:
– Impossible to find anywhere to live because holiday homes/Air BnBs have destroyed the possibility of renting and/or starting on the housing market. Basically why we had to leave.
– Once you’ve lived on a Scottish island for 10 years, you will struggle to find fresh air on the mainland. I find this upsetting but I think most people would cope find.
– Your perspective on weather changes. Gale force winds are now “a bit of a breeze”, warm weather starts at 10c, and it’s only a lot of snow if it reaches your knees 🤷🏻♀️
As an escapee from SE England now residing in Aberdeenshire where I’ve been for many years I can truly say it’s bloody fantastic.
It’s stunningly beautiful where I live and a simple trip to the nearest town for my once weekly shop never ceases to make me smile. There is no bad scenery whichever way I look.
Purchases that can’t be made locally can be made by a trip to Aberdeen an hour away. For everything else we now have FTTP Internet and reliable (mostly) delivery services. Not bad for a wee out of the way spot in the arse end of the boonies.
There’s hardly any crime, people or traffic up here, unless you count tractors – there’s a lot of them – but the few people I do encounter are friendly and helpful but also respectful of privacy. It’s just a lovely place to live.
One of the best bits is that the rest of Scotland isn’t too far away to explore either. It was a long 10 hour drive for our holidays up here before we moved. Now we can get pretty much everywhere on the mainland within around four hours. We’ve been exploring Scotland for years and years and we’re still not bored with it.
It’s a breath of fresh air both figuratively and literally.
Grew up on the Morayshire coast!
Very difficult without a car. Moved to Edinburgh in 2016 and I was stunned at the reliability and frequency of the buses – 9 years later and I still have no plans to learn to drive!
Absolutely stunning scenery. Although, requires a car to get to many of the great walking routes. My favourite is a wee place called Logie Steading, near Forres, and there’s no way you can easily get there via public transport.
Northern lights are semi-reliable, but I’m still convinced the dolphins are a myth.
Whisky absolutely everywhere. Drive 10 miles and you’ve seen as many distilleries.
I’ve lived in the northern Cairngorms for 15 years and wouldn’t be anywhere else. It’s not too ‘remote’ in terms of facilities and community. Inverness is a 40 min drive. North East coast is same distance. Mountains, Caledonian forest, lochs – it’s paradise (as someone who grew up in post-industrial South Yorkshire).
The only ‘niggle’ would be its really hard to find housing, the rental market is dominated by holiday lets. There’s a massive scramble whenever anyone advertises a long-term let and it’s massively difficult for locals to stay in the area they’ve grown up.
Tourism is also tipping well into the ‘too much’ territory. It’s tricky because local economy needs it, and lots of aspects of tourism are actually quite nice. But since Covid it’s just gone a bit nuts. There are places I just avoid in the summer now which is a shame. But genuinely feel grateful to live here every day.
The pros outweigh the cons, 100x over. I think Northern Cairngorms is the ‘sweet spot’ for highland living.
Fine, but the lack of Government support is fairly obvious.
Less than 1k hospital beds for an area the size of Belgium (obvs cutting out Moray and Aberdeenshire out of the picture, cos whilst Aberdeen are northern, it more feels like they’re a fringe city, who’ll get the occasional government boost, but otherwise are still being shafted.
The fact your entire day could be scuppered with a road closure. A9 closed due to another bad crash? Either bin the day off, or expect to be absolutely diddled, cos you’re going to have to go round via Fort William/Ullapool/Aberdeen.
It takes HOURS to get anywhere. Inverness to Wick by train takes 4 hours 15. By comparison, in that time, you could just about drive from Inverness to Carlisle. The railways haven’t recieved any significant attention since probably the Beeching Cuts, and are desperately overdue for an overhaul and new stations being built/rebuilt in communities to assist with people having to commute for work.
The latter ones are less lack of government related, but are still issues
If you want to go literally anywhere on holiday, you’re having to travel 153 miles (from Inverness) to get to a Edinburgh Airport, as Inverness and Aberdeen’s flight choices aren’t especially helpful unless you’re flying via London or Holland
Constantly dealing with tourists, tourists and more tourists, a fair whack of which don’t have a monkey what they’re doing and will cause massive traffic problems. Gawking at the hills whilst heading a conga line down the A9 at 45mph, parking in passing places to go off on a jolly/take photos of the scenery/highland cows
Orkney here. It’s relatively peaceful, it’s a beautiful place but I have a lot of things that are cons for me.
– Small town rumour mills (not a huge problem for me now in my 30s but awful growing up)
– Cruise liner season where my town can see up to 7000 tourists dumped in it in one day
-Shopping is not cheap and you’re limited to Co-Op, Lidl or Tesco and in the winter if the weather is bad enough the shelves can get bare as the boats can’t get in to deliver goods
– A lot of places won’t deliver here and if they do they charge extortionate prices, I was quoted £100 to deliver a single bed from Wayfair but managed to find another on the same site for just £20 postage and just last week had an order for a desk chair cancelled and refunded as they ‘don’t have anyone that delivers to Orkney’
– Less activities, I’m not saying there is nothing but we just got a bowling alley this weekend and an arcade after the old one shut down roughly 15 years ago if memory serves me right
– Less shops, we have a Peacocks and Tesco for clothes, I buy 99% of mine and my kids’ clothes online which isn’t great because they can’t try it on until it arrives and may need sending back
– The cost of holidays is even higher than normal as it costs extra to have to fly or get the ferry to the mainland, even with discounts for being an islander it’s expensive
– Lack of police presence means a lot of drivers think the rules don’t apply to them, the amount of near misses I’ve had in a year of driving because of other people is insane
– Lack of specialist doctors means people often have to travel to mainland Scotland for appointments or treatment. I’ve seen myself fly to Aberdeen in the morning for a 15 minute appointment then fly back home that afternoon. We have no NICU so when my waters went with meconium in them with my eldest I had to get flown to Aberdeen via air ambulance and when he was a newborn he had sepsis and we were flown to Edinburgh via air ambulance. However, saying this, the longest I’ve waited to be seen in A&E is about 2 hours and I can phone my GP up until noon to get seen that day
– Housing, we have a huge lack of rental properties, young people are struggling to move out of mum and dad’s house because they can’t find anywhere to rent and jobs accept people from out of Orkney and these people can’t find anywhere to live to move up here
It’s not an awful place, there is a strong sense of community, like when we hosted the Island Games this year, the atmosphere everywhere was amazing. It’s definitely a slower pace up here and I’m thankful that I grew up and get to raise my children here in relative security. I personally wanted to move away when I was younger but I started a family here instead. If I could have things my way I’d move away and retire back up here. It’s not because I hate Orkney but I just feel cooped up here a lot of the time.
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