Relocating family to countryside

looksee

Not very often you find 'countryside' with footpaths! Would be lovely if there were, I'd walk much more.

xeresod

I was 15 or so minutes drive from a town for years, recently moved to a small village 5 minutes drive away from the same town (walkable too) and don't I know myself.

I can walk to the local shop/pharmacy/chipper in no time, and going into the town for the supermarkets is a doodle and as it knocks off nearly half an hour of the journey, we find we're going several times a week and as we're buying less at once, we're throwing out less gone-off fresh food.

Only downside is that the chinese/indian/etc deliver to our new house now 😂

Plus, we have streetlights, footpaths and a park as well as rural laneways for walking which means no torches and hi-vis at this time of the year.

And I know this is location dependent, but everybody in our village is lovely and while there are teenage packs hanging around, they're not anti-social in any way - probably because everyone knows who they are and who their parents are!!!

We only moved 10km, but in terms of quality of life, being in a village so close to a town is far better for us than being rural and I loved living rural, especially after living for a few years in Dublin city centre! (Necessary for work at the time unfortunately).

Wildly Boaring

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119807390#Comment_119807390

Agreed it was just an example to counter the unsustainable argument. We do have a lot of schools and shops dotted about our rural areas. Lot of rural Ireland has buses to secondary school. It's not all cars and driving but it's definitely something to plan when moving.

Personally I'd stick to a town or a village but really enjoyed the quiet at night in the country. If buying in the country it would need to be walking distance to schools. Car everyday drive me nuts.

Often cycle this road. Not sure I like the idea of footpaths everywhere. Does a right number in hedgerow etc.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AvKJwte7md2UGMY57

tastyt

Made move from Dublin to home town during Covid after 10 years . Was always worried in Dublin that if I did we’d be bored for some reason

I think buying a house in a good size town is best of both worlds really . You have all supermarkets, coffe shops , pubs , cinema that you need but a way slower pace of life and a tighter community feel . You can also walk to all these places and schools , clubs etc . Buying rurally or 15 mins outside a town can be a real shock from the city , especially for teenagers

mariaalice

Buy somewhere with a secondary school and don't move more than 2 or 3 kilometers from the town/village however that sort of distance from the what even town or village tends to be the most expensive area in the locality and if the town or village is within 20/30 kilometers of Limerick, Cork, Galway, Sligo even more expensive.