Looking for advice on moving to Galway

steveo26486

Hello All,

We live in north Dublin but my wife has to travel to Galway a few times a week so we have decided after ALOT of research to sell and buy in Galway so likely towns are; Athenry, claregalway, loughrea, Monivea, Kinvara, Headford, Corofin & city commuter belt towns.

We have searched online and every post we find really paints a brilliant picture of life living in Galway, which is really great! we have 5 year old twins boys and really want a calmer and more relaxed pace of life away from Dublin!

So are there any really big negatives to moving to Galway ie schools, life, finding work & life in general?

Also real positives?

Does it really rain that much and is the traffic really that bad compared to Dublin?

Is it easy enough to fit in and get to know the community?

We are 99% moving but want to as sure we possible
Would be helpful to hear from people that moved from Dublin to Galway please

Thanks in advance

popa smurf

We moved 12 years ago from a 3 bed semi to detatched house on .7 of an acre in rural galway. great value to be had down here if you are willing to move out a bit .we have had 4 kids since moving here so we are fairly well established in local community with schools and football and other activities. Work was scarce for a few years but has picked up last few years again. We are only 40 min from the city but dont get in much brcause the traffic can be crasy at timed but it's a nice treat for an evening out . The carrot for us was living mortgage free and having space.. bring the rain gear and the wellies with you and you will be grand.

steveo26486

Thats are plan too, worse case small mortgage only. We dont want to live in a semi or build up estate.
Looking for a house on its own land but still close to enough a village/town with good schools hopefully!
Tks for feedback

dok_golf

Add Craughwell to the list. Great transport links and just a few minutes from both motorways, excellent schools, plenty of activities, and friendly people

flazio

Presuming the job is in the city and is on the east side of the Corrib. Because if not traffic is murder trying to cross one river with only 4 bridges going across it.

randomname2005

As Flazio said, try to work on the same side of the river as the job.
You don't say if you will be working or a stay at home father, or if you will be looking for work, so factoring in where you might get a job is important. If you are living outside of city the public transport infrastructure is not great.

It does rain a lot, or at least it seems like it compared to what family in Dublin talk about. Have a look at met.ie, they have a past weather section, and you can compare how much it rains in Galway (Athenry station) to Dublin Airport. However, when we do get good weather down here, there are few better places to be.

Edit: Average yearly rainfall in Athenry is 1200 mm, Dublin airport is 800 (round figures).

If you have not lived in a rural area before I would think about renting before buying as it can be a big change - having to travel further to get anything, less chance of walking to school with kids (if you are outside of a village), possibly more restrictive opening hours.

Also, be careful where you buy. Look at flood plane maps and local rivers to see where might flood.

<The above might seem negative but I live in Co Galway and wouldn't change too much about it, but I know that the ideal life painted on the net is not what everyone encounters>

tobdom

steveo26486 wrote: »

So are there any really big negatives to moving to Galway ie schools, life, finding work & life in general?

Also real positives?

Does it really rain that much and is the traffic really that bad compared to Dublin?

Thanks in advance

From the West but lived in Dublin for 12 years over two stints. Moved to Galway 2 years ago to 'settle down'. I find the work/life balance much better here, but that's only judging it on one job/company in Galway so far - the seemingly rigid working patterns/shifts of the big pharma & med companies, to me, seems to influence other companies in the vicinity - in that people seem to stick to their hours and don't kill themselves working long days (compared to what I experienced in Dublin).

Traffic - if you're used to Dublin traffic, M50 etc. then you won't be too put out by Galway. Yes, it's very bad at times, but again, in comparison to Dublin, I don't think you'll be too frustrated. I commute daily from the Headford area on the N84 into Parkmore/Ballybrit area, it's ~25km and takes on average 40mins (20 mins with no traffic) - I don't find that too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Overall for me there's no competition, Galway, the West, 'rural' Ireland is great compared to Dublin - once you're going into it with your 'eyes open' and are aware of the trade offs.

steveo26486

My wife has Craughwell on the list now tks.
Yeah I will be a stay at home father and my wife works around mostly Galway and Mayo, so once she is about 40-50min max from the city she is happy. Really dont want to be in an estate so a house on a .5 acre or more would be perfect.
Definitely need to have neighbours as dont want to be in the middle of nowhere.
I wont be returning to work for another 2 years at most so dont to be to far away from a business park etc

advice/comments are all positive, so great! tks

motley

If looking to buy in a rural area, make sure to check broadband coverage before purchasing. You don't realise how much you need it till you can't get it! Lightnet, Imagine and Airwire are most popular providers in Galway. They can give you an idea of coverage in location of property you might be looking at.

randomname2005

motley wrote: »

If looking to buy in a rural area, make sure to check broadband coverage before purchasing. You don't realise how much you need it till you can't get it! Lightnet, Imagine and Airwire are most popular providers in Galway. They can give you an idea of coverage in location of property you might be looking at.

Absolutely. Especially rural. I work with people who live outside of small villages and they don't have enough bandwidth to stream Netflix/RTE Player etc.

popa smurf

Its very hard to get the right house on the right site in the right location, they are not out there and if they are there are snapped up straight away, good luck with your serach it's an exciting but daunting task.

Definitely take the advice of renting in a rural location for a while. I bought about 35 mins outside Galway but after a few years it was a real hate driving those country roads where you get stuck behind a slow driver and end up late.

Also, you mentioned that you don't want to live in an estate. Thing is, you have to trade off different things. Convenience and access to amenities versus living in the sticks.

Personally I would recommend that you look at the outskirts of Oranmore, Athenry, Gort, or Loughrea. You will have the country living but access to reasonably sized towns as well as the motorways which will seriously save your sanity

Discodog

If you want to be drier then stay within a mile or so of the sea. The weather data shows a strip running from Rossaveel to Oranmore & about a mile inland, that gets a lot less rainfall.

I moved to the West of Galway, by the sea & I work outdoors. I think that Galway is one of the best places in the World & I have traveled a lot.

Mr Man

steveo26486 - if you still have ties to Dublin, Athenry town is a great spot as it has the train. Also very good schools.

steveo26486

Thank you all for the advice, its been very very helpful

My wife is down in Galway every week with work but not me so this weekend just gone we went down together and stayed in Loughrea.
We just drove from town to town around Galway for 3hrs on fri and 4 hrs on Sat. We found it very useful and stopped when we could all the towns mention above.
We think we have narrowed it down to the following towns: Loughrea, Killimor, Oranmore, Claregalway, Headford, Kinvara, Moycullen, corrifin and Monivea which I liked most!

Just a few Question please:

How much of Claregalway is a flood plain and is traffic still bad in to city?

What is Monivea like to live in?

And after Oranmore which are the biggest towns with say cinema?

Thank you

twignme

I know you said you have narrowed your choices down, but if you haven’t already, take a look at Cappataggle. Good school, great sports pitches and walking track, playground, very active community centre and a real sense of community. Always lots going on. And it’s on the old Dublin to Galway road convenient for those trips you want to make back to Dublin, easy commute to Galway, close to Athenry, and just beyond Loughrea.

cinnabar

Claregalway traffic is mental. Even more so since the motorway opened. Its a shame because its a nice area and location is great. Athenry is lovely and good links with train and bus and roads. Monivea has a great community spirit and good local sporting amenities and the wood and playground. Kinvara is a great spot. Good schools and amenities and a friendly community. Loughrea is also a decent town with good amenities.

steveo26486

will be looking this up. thanks for the tip. never hear of it.

flazio

twignme wrote: »

I know you said you have narrowed your choices down, but if you haven’t already, take a look at Cappataggle. Good school, great sports pitches and walking track, playground, very active community centre and a real sense of community. Always lots going on. And it’s on the old Dublin to Galway road convenient for those trips you want to make back to Dublin, easy commute to Galway, close to Athenry, and just beyond Loughrea.

Does it have broadband?

steveo26486

Thats for sure!
As far as I can remember there is a website that gives the broadband speed areas around Ireland
Broadband speed is as important as water & power now! have to have my netflix 4k!

twignme

flazio wrote: »

Does it have broadband?

Many houses are close enough to enabled exchanges, but if not, others use lightnet, imagine etc and also Digiweb satellite.

How much of Claregalway is a flood plain and is traffic still bad in to city?

A lot of it is and there are currently no plans to address the traffic in Claregalway. Avoid it. I lived behind one of the hotels many years ago, moved within a few months due to the traffic

What is Monivea like to live in?

It's a brilliant little village and has a great community spirit with the national school, rugby team, GAA, community centre, playground, pubs etc.

It's got a huge catchment area and has great night life on Fridays and Saturdays considering it's size.

bagels

I strongly recommend you add Tuam to your list. Tuam has great bus services as its on the direct north south route. As well as the several times daily bus eireann service, you also have the very frequent independent local service (Burkes) and the weekend independent services from further north which service the colleges in Galway, Limerick, Cork, etc. Tuam is 45 minutes from Knock Airport and an hour from Shannon airport. All national bus services heading north or south stop at both of these airports. You have a connecting motorway to Galway and south to Shannon and Limerick. There's another motorway to Dublin which is only 2 hours away and its airport is just 2hrs 15 mins. There's at least two bus services on the Galway City-Dublin and Airport route (bus eireann and citylink) and the frequency is hourly. Tuam has an excellent swimming pool/leisure/fitness centre located in the town park, which itself is a beautiful place of tranquility with a paved pathway on the perimeter and a decent childrens playground. There are 5 primary schools and 4 secondary schools in the town and two cathedrals for the two main religions. Very active drama club, athletics club, swimming club, gymnastics club, hurling club, football club, soccer club, rugby club, etc cater for children as young as yours. Many excellent local musicians provide music lessons for children and there's also a childrens church choir. There's a popular adults musical society, drama club and choir and there's regular shows in the local theatre. The nearest cinema complex is in Oranmore, about 15 mins by motorway. A Greenway from Athenry to Tuam and onwards through Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim up to Donegal/Derry is in the pipeline and should materialise within a couple of years. There are two 'independent' supermarkets and a Lidl shop, and also Aldi have acquired planning permission to build a store here. A brand new fire station is under construction and the new primary care facility (with x-ray and scan services) is about to officially open, and there's an ambulance base situated next door. The taxi services locally are excellent. Parking in the town centre is plentiful and very cheap too. I could go on and on singing the praises of Tuam but that's enough for now. I hope my post is helpful and if you want more information then feel free to message me. I hope you and your family will be happy wherever you decide to live.

randomname2005

I don't live in Monivea but would consider it if it had better transport to work in Galway. It has a great playground, woods, and sports clubs.

cold_comfort

steveo26486 wrote: »

Thank you all for the advice, its been very very helpful

My wife is down in Galway every week with work but not me so this weekend just gone we went down together and stayed in Loughrea.
We just drove from town to town around Galway for 3hrs on fri and 4 hrs on Sat. We found it very useful and stopped when we could all the towns mention above.
We think we have narrowed it down to the following towns: Loughrea, Killimor, Oranmore, Claregalway, Headford, Kinvara, Moycullen, corrifin and Monivea which I liked most!

Just a few Question please:

How much of Claregalway is a flood plain and is traffic still bad in to city?

What is Monivea like to live in?

And after Oranmore which are the biggest towns with say cinema?

Thank you

the good about monivea =

lovely village , lovely green spaces and its always kept very well , still within very reasonable commuter distance to galway , four pubs to choose from plus two small but decent little shops , also a very well stocked hardware store

the negative about monivea = incredibly clannish but to be honest much of rural galway is like this , galway folk think they are very friendly but in reality once they know the facts about you , you have " blow in " stamped on your head forever , the clannishness is a sight to behold


weather is universally awful in galway , living here nearly eleven years

cold_comfort

bagels wrote: »

I strongly recommend you add Tuam to your list. Tuam has great bus services as its on the direct north south route. As well as the several times daily bus eireann service, you also have the very frequent independent local service (Burkes) and the weekend independent services from further north which service the colleges in Galway, Limerick, Cork, etc. Tuam is 45 minutes from Knock Airport and an hour from Shannon airport. All national bus services heading north or south stop at both of these airports. You have a connecting motorway to Galway and south to Shannon and Limerick. There's another motorway to Dublin which is only 2 hours away and its airport is just 2hrs 15 mins. There's at least two bus services on the Galway City-Dublin and Airport route (bus eireann and citylink) and the frequency is hourly. Tuam has an excellent swimming pool/leisure/fitness centre located in the town park, which itself is a beautiful place of tranquility with a paved pathway on the perimeter and a decent childrens playground. There are 5 primary schools and 4 secondary schools in the town and two cathedrals for the two main religions. Very active drama club, athletics club, swimming club, gymnastics club, hurling club, football club, soccer club, rugby club, etc cater for children as young as yours. Many excellent local musicians provide music lessons for children and there's also a childrens church choir. There's a popular adults musical society, drama club and choir and there's regular shows in the local theatre. The nearest cinema complex is in Oranmore, about 15 mins by motorway. A Greenway from Athenry to Tuam and onwards through Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim up to Donegal/Derry is in the pipeline and should materialise within a couple of years. There are two 'independent' supermarkets and a Lidl shop, and also Aldi have acquired planning permission to build a store here. A brand new fire station is under construction and the new primary care facility (with x-ray and scan services) is about to officially open, and there's an ambulance base situated next door. The taxi services locally are excellent. Parking in the town centre is plentiful and very cheap too. I could go on and on singing the praises of Tuam but that's enough for now. I hope my post is helpful and if you want more information then feel free to message me. I hope you and your family will be happy wherever you decide to live.

tuam is the best suggestion yet , much cheaper than athenry or loughrea for housing , tuam is very scruffy looking but it has everything you need and with the new motorway , commuting is made easier

tuam is remarkably cheap for housing ( thought its risen quite a bit ) compared to other towns in galway and this is for a very specific reason but its not like the OP would be living around a certain road , housing in tuam is cheaper than athenry despite it being more than twice the size , athenry is very nice looking but its an awful sleepy town with very little retail activity in the town hub itself much of the time , tuam is always quite busy and bustling despite the messy look about it , the shopping options in tuam dwarf somewhere like athenry which is dominated by one supermarket

i would put tuam above a small place like monivea with its suffocating clannishness

Space Dog

bagels wrote: »

The nearest cinema complex is in Oranmore, about 15 mins by motorway. A

Unless you're doing 200 on the motorway it's gonna take you 30 minutes to Oranmore.

steveo26486

Hi all. Looking for some final advice. We're finally ready to make the move to Galway after a long time contemplating where and when. We now put in 2 bids. One on a house in Monivea and one in Headford. Just waiting to see now which bid has been successful.

We're looking to know just how easy it is to integrate into the community not only in Galway but speficially in Monivea and Headford. Would you suggest one town/village over another and if so why.

All help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

aw

Congrats and best of luck.

Both are nice places, to be honest, and both have their amenities.
Both have good schools and are commutable to Galway.
Monivea is probably better located for the motorway and the railway, if that is a factor.

steveo26486

I posted this question in an old thread I started by mistake so here it is in a new one.

Hi all. Looking for some final advice. We're finally ready to make the move to Galway after a long time contemplating where and when. We have now put in 2 bids. One on a house in Monivea area and one 2km from Headford town. Just waiting to see now which bid has been successful.

We're looking to know just how easy it is to integrate into the community not only in Galway but specifically in Monivea and Headford areas. Would you suggest one town/village over another and if so why.
Also I got a Private message before form a boards user saying Monivea is very clannish to outsiders! any truth in this?

All help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

leex

steveo26486 wrote: »

I posted this question in an old thread I started by mistake so here it is in a new one.

Hi all. Looking for some final advice. We're finally ready to make the move to Galway after a long time contemplating where and when. We have now put in 2 bids. One on a house in Monivea area and one 2km from Headford town. Just waiting to see now which bid has been successful.

We're looking to know just how easy it is to integrate into the community not only in Galway but specifically in Monivea and Headford areas. Would you suggest one town/village over another and if so why.
Also I got a Private message before form a boards user saying Monivea is very clannish to outsiders! any truth in this?

All help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Can't comment on Monivea but Headford has had a lot of people move into the area in last number of years. Never heard of any issues with integration. I'd say it has benefitted the area as a lot of new groups have been set up in areas like arts and cultural activities.