Moving to Scotland

turnikett1

Hi everyone

I'm quite sold on the idea of moving to Scotland next September. However, I've yet to visit and would like some advice. Bare in mind I am going to visit both Glasgow and Edinburgh next January! If I don't like them well I guess I'll be moving to England (not likely )

What do Glasgow and Edinburgh have to offer respectively? I know it depends on who you are. I'm obsessed with music, especially trad, which I play regularly. I'm also obsessed with history and have a love of good food, good beer and nature. I have a degree in sociology, political science and French.

What are average rent prices? How is the availability of jobs? Is Glasgow as rough as it's made out to be? Is Scotland a decent place to live overall? Tell me everything! Cheers

OneColdHand

turnikett1 wrote: »

Hi everyone

I'm quite sold on the idea of moving to Scotland next September. However, I've yet to visit and would like some advice. Bare in mind I am going to visit both Glasgow and Edinburgh next January! If I don't like them well I guess I'll be moving to England (not likely )

What do Glasgow and Edinburgh have to offer respectively? I know it depends on who you are. I'm obsessed with music, especially trad, which I play regularly. I'm also obsessed with history and have a love of good food, good beer and nature. I have a degree in sociology, political science and French.

What are average rent prices? How is the availability of jobs? Is Glasgow as rough as it's made out to be? Is Scotland a decent place to live overall? Tell me everything! Cheers

Hi there, I live in Edinburgh, so happy to let you know a bit about it.

Reasons I like Edinburgh:
- It's a nice size - for me at least. None of the sprawling mess that a city like London has. It's small, but still big enough to feel like a city. It's very walkable (we don't own a car). Where we live is nicely outside the city centre, but we can stroll into town in about 20 mins.
- There's plenty going - festivals and so on. August is crazy. Some people think it's crazy good, some people think it's crazy bad. I really like the Fringe, and all the additional stuff going on in August - there's something for everyone. And there's plenty happening throughout the year too, apart from August. There's a Jazz festival in July.
- The city itself is interesting. Architecturally I like the contrast between the rambly (that's a word, right?) medieval Old Town and the classically planned New Town.
- The people are generally very nice, approachable and friendly. I've met some great people since moving here.
- It's well positioned for getting out of the city to nice areas along the coast. Plenty of nice areas out towards North Berwick as well heading North to Fife. All doable as day trips. And plenty to do if you're the outdoorsy type.

The trad music scene I won't comment on too much as I'm by no means an expert. I also have a 6 month old, so don't get out too much these days. The main pub I'm aware of for trad music in the city is Sandy Bells - a great pub. They seem to have trad session every night.

Rent: I pay £780 for a 2 bed flat in a nice part of the city. However, I feel that might be low by current stardards. Our rent has only gone up by £50 in 2.5 years. I feel a similar place could well be now £850 - £900. But it all depends on the part of the city you look at. Leith is a good area to look. It would be cheaper but it's still a nice area.

Jobs: Really depends on what you do. I work in the construction industry, an in my experience there is a lot of stuff still being built despite Brexit.

Glasgow: I'll let other who live there comment in more detail. I've been into Glasgow about 5 or 6 times, and every time I love it. I think it's a great city. I'm sure there are rough areas outside the city centre, but the city centre really isn't as rough as it's made out to be. Its actually a really nice city - Merchant City is a beautiful part of the city.

Any more questions let me know!

jimmii

Edinburgh definitely wins when it comes to museums (they are everywhere!) and food (Visit Scotland say it has more eateries per person than any city in the UK and has 4 Michelin starred restaurants to Glasgows 0) but Glasgow definitely wins when it comes to music (Never been to a bad gig at King Tuts) in general but there's plenty of trad to hear in Edinburgh. If you like history then you will never get bored of Edinburgh and you'll always find amazing things when you go for a random wander around! While Glasgow has its strengths it just isn't that nice a place to be its convenient with the wide open shopping streets but it just doesn't have the magic feel that Edinburgh does.

Edinburgh is generally a good bit more expensive than Glasgow you can compare the home.co.uk rent reports on the two cities Glasgow & Edinburgh average rent for a two bed in Glasgow is £705 while in Edinburgh it is £1203! In reality its probably not that big a difference as its skewed by the pricey end of the scale there is virtually no high end market in Glasgow (only 9 places at £2k+/month) compared to Edinburgh (141!).

Fysh

If you're after music, you'll be going to gigs in Glasgow far more often than Edinburgh. Having said that, Glasgow's only an hour by train so you could fairly easily get there and back from Edinburgh for gigs. Ditto for shopping actually - Edinburgh's ok for shops but if you're looking to hit a bunch of shops you'll be traipsing around Princes St and probably several shopping centres in disparate locations.

Another aspect of Glasgow vs Edinburgh is that, as far as I can tell, Glasgow is conventionally laid out (as in, everything radiates out from the city centre) whereas Edinburgh is a bit more oddly laid out.

Weatherwise as far as I can tell Edinburgh is windier and a bit colder but Glasgow is wetter. I reckon Edinburgh has a similar-ish amount of rain to Cork, so make of that what you will.

Edinburgh's cultural scene (aside from music) is very good given the size of the place - the Fringe is a mind-boggling assortment of all sorts of shows and performances, the film festival in June is fantastic and there are a bunch of other festivals throughout the year that are great. There are also a lot of interesting theatre shows all year round, and there are a bunch of museums, with the likes of the National Museum of Scotland often hosting larger travelling exhibitions (for example, they hosted a huge History of Videogames exhibition a while back which was excellent).

Fysh

One thing I would say with Edinburgh - avoid moving around September if you can help it, because between the Fringe and students starting/returning to uni, there's a lot of demand on property which generally manifests as higher rents.

Bebo stunnah

Fysh wrote: »

One thing I would say with Edinburgh - avoid moving around September if you can help it, because between the Fringe and students starting/returning to uni, there's a lot of demand on property which generally manifests as higher rents.

Completely agree with this. From my own experience you should wipe the last week of July through to mid October off your calender for looking for apartments in Edinburgh. Some landlords actually wont let you rent your flat in August!

jimmii

Yeh seen a few 11 month leases knocking about. Hardly surprising when they can generate a month's rent per week during the festival.

turnikett1

Thanks everyone! So from what I gather on here and from friends Edinburgh is the nicer, cosier of the two but more expensive, Glasgow edgier and not as aesthetically pleasing but way better music scene and overall craic to be had!

I'm not exclusively looking for great night life but it definitely helps. Both sound great but a cracking music scene in Glasgow will definitely have a say in where I go! Look forward to visiting soon and seeing for myself which suits me. Any recommendations for things to do on a quick holiday? Will be in each for 3-4 days

How's the Guinness? Is there anything you miss about Ireland? How has Brexit shaped your feelings and plans to live there?

jimmii

Brexit feck it sure it'll be grand. Everyone here is really nice and welcoming but I do miss that bit of craic. Edinburgh has plenty of clubs and bars for nights out too it's only really live music where it suffers one of the main venues in the city is turning into a wetherspoons which has only made it worse. There is talk of building a ~10k venue but that may well just to appease the people dismayed at the Spoons decision. Given you're only around for a few days in each I would try stay central so it's east to pop out either side of the city east of Edinburgh is well worth a trip out to when you're here.

zweton

turnikett1 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! So from what I gather on here and from friends Edinburgh is the nicer, cosier of the two but more expensive, Glasgow edgier and not as aesthetically pleasing but way better music scene and overall craic to be had!

I'm not exclusively looking for great night life but it definitely helps. Both sound great but a cracking music scene in Glasgow will definitely have a say in where I go! Look forward to visiting soon and seeing for myself which suits me. Any recommendations for things to do on a quick holiday? Will be in each for 3-4 days

How's the Guinness? Is there anything you miss about Ireland? How has Brexit shaped your feelings and plans to live there?

Sandy Bells for the guinness! ;-)

KingBrian2

I visited Edinburgh years ago it is a beautiful city. The Castle overlooking the city centre is magnificent. Outside of Dublin my proud city I would recommend trying it out. It is very much like Dublin in many ways. It has its own legal system & parliament.

razorblunt

Woah woah woah, it's more like Cork, if it's anything ;-)

Yeah the music scene is a big letdown alright, though you do get decent shows on in the Usher Hall from time to time, there's nothing in the "O2 Arena" category for the usual expected gigs.

The Guinness over here isn't bad, it depends on the pour more than anything but like anywhere outside of Dublin (even at home) it's not going to taste as good.

Teuchters for the Guinness for me.
Malone's for the Tayto and Club Orange.

jimmii

Jaysus don't be going comparing Edinburgh to Dublin thats a bit harsh on Edinburgh! I'd say Glasgow is more like Dublin. But in a bad way! For me Edinburgh is more like a Disneyland you can live in! It has something a little bit magical about it helps that a lot of the buildings are literally straight out of the pages of Harry Potter!

Fysh

Cork's not a bad comparison for Edinburgh - it's a similar sort of size, and the weather's similar (though colder in Edinburgh). There's much more going on in Edinburgh all year round, though - things like the Christmas Festival are pretty great, and make the place look even better than normal.

I've never been too worried about Guinness as stouts go, but I'd be happy if somewhere had decent Beamish or Murphys. Mind you, Indigo Yard has had Shandon Stout on tap a few times which arguably beats both of them, and there are so many places in Edinburgh with great selections of beer that there's no real reason to complain, tbh.

OneColdHand

Fysh wrote: »

I've never been too worried about Guinness as stouts go, but I'd be happy if somewhere had decent Beamish or Murphys. Mind you, Indigo Yard has had Shandon Stout on tap a few times which arguably beats both of them, and there are so many places in Edinburgh with great selections of beer that there's no real reason to complain, tbh.

Agreed. I love my Guinness, but don't even both trying it over here, as there's pretty much always something on tap worth trying.

Belhaven Black is pretty damn good. I haven't seen it too many places, but Dirty Dicks on Rose St. has it.

razorblunt

Indigo Yard and Montpelliers carry the Franciscan Well stuff alright.
There's quite a few Heineken owned bars in the City, I would have expected more Murphy's to be honest.

I can't recall anywhere that has it here, last place I got one was the Hilton in Dunkeld.

SM01

Been living in Edinburgh 7 years now (with a year in Glasgow) and both cities are grand. The edginess that Glasgow is supposed to have - I didn't see any of it at all in my time there. Very friendly folk, accents a bit difficult to penetrate, but good folk all the same. Edinburgh folk are a little more aloof and less friendly to begin with. Give it time though and they thaw a bit. Night life definitely better in Glasgow but still decent in Edinburgh. I live close to Leith and our rent is 750 for a one bed in a decent area (Brunswick road). We reckon that's a tad low though.

One welcome idiosyncracy of Scottish pubs is they let dogs into pubs! Great idea that!

Jack B. Badd

Fysh wrote: »

I reckon Edinburgh has a similar-ish amount of rain to Cork, so make of that what you will.

I'm going to have to disagree - I think Cork is a fair bit wetter than Edinburgh. Or maybe it just clusters together more. A dry day in Edinburgh tends to be dry for the duration. A "dry" day in Cork will still have a few showers :-s