How rural is too rural?

If theres no street lights or mains sewage then forget about it.

The difference is negligible in real terms. rural dweller here, the further out within reason the better in my opinion.

Weird ..... what a really weird thing to get worked up about. Why in the jaysus would you need street lights outside your rural home on 1 acre of land... also sewerage mains... wtf? I've got a septic tank it's perfect it came with the house and does its own thing always.

14 minutes is absolutely nothing frankly. You wouldn't get into Dublin City from the suburbs in 14 minutes.

If all your journeys from both will be by car, doesn't make much difference.

If you were planning on walking to town it might be different

I would go for the further one then. 6km is a 5 mins drive.

Honestly, the worst thing about living rurally is the cost of a taxi after a night on the beer. Other than that, it's just the small bit of extra time needed to get to places. The benefits are usually nicer, larger, cheaper houses and less neighbours.

I'm from Dublin, we bought rural. You couldn't get me to move back. Never lived rural before we bought.

Depends what you want. Life is more than a house. Do you know people in the area ? How will you get to know people in the area ? You will need to get involved in village life. If you plan on having kids it will make it easier. You will have to drive to the pub or pay for taxis if they are available. Do you want to be able to walk to the shop ?

Or even the inability to get a taxi

15 mins to town is easy to manage, that's just hinterland. Not exactly the back of beyond.

I'm reminded of a documentary I watched a while ago about a horse rancher in the USA and just how rural it can get over there. This guy was living on a 400 acre ranch that was 30 mins drive from the nearest road, and another 40 minutes to the nearest town once there. There was no one nearby, and he had to keep his own well and power generator. Just imagine being in that situation and hearing a knock on the door at 3am. No wonder they have the guns!

You mentioned that you're looking around Shannon. I know that area quite well, and without meaning to insult anyone, I find it to be one of the bleakest parts of the country. Are you sure you want to live down there in the middle of nowhere? The change from living in a city or even a town is profound. From personal experience, not everyone is wired for rural living. If you need anything, you need to get in the car. A lot of townies see rural houses on lovely summer days and think that it would be idyllic, but as someone who lived in a fairly rural house back in the day, winters can be long.

You living outside ? 😁😁

I'm sitting in a warm comfortable upgraded 200 + sq meter bungalow looking out at the sea from our living room. Granted we're 5 minutes drive to closest town and 5 min other way to the kids school. We've a septic it does its job as it should.

Lived in Dublin, it took 40 minutes by luas to get to town, the large shopping centre was 5 minutes drive or 25 minutes walk. 20 minutes walk to pub.

Much of a muchness. Traffic in Dublin is mental people idolise city living too. With traffic applied it can be chaos dropping kids or travelling to work. 🤷‍♀️

That's fair ! And accurate

I'd be relatively familiar with the area, as said Shannon can be a bit bleak, but 15 min from Shannon means your in either Limerick or Ennis or any of the lovey village in the area, be it New Market, tulla, sixmilebridge, bunratty, crattloe, kilmurry, all nice spots that I would want to live in or near any day over Shannon town centre. All have a shop/pub/school and 5 to 10 min from a junction to the motorway network.

You are still only 15 to 20 min from limerick, you will be 15min to Shannon, there will be no traffic, the locals will all be well educated and hard workers commuting to limerick Shannon ennis and galway or even further. At the weekends they will be out cutting the grass and taking the kids to training. The area your talking about isn't bally-go-backwards, it's suburbia on an acre plot with cows.

Once you get used to the quite you will love it.

Lovely, did you move to Wexford?

The traffic is mental now in Dublin everywhere.

From the OP, the decision isn't rural vs (sub)urban; both are rural and it's 6km vs 12km away from the nearest big town - IMO, you won't even notice that extra 6km, go for whichever house/area you prefer

Practically speaking, there's no real difference between 6km and 12km; either would be too far to reasonably walk to run your errands on a regular basis, so you'll be driving regardless, and the difference is completely negligible. Once you're in the car anyway, an extra five minutes or so of driving is nothing.

This i live 1.8 miles from town (unfortunately uphill) taxi price puts you off going out. 10-15 euro each way. Still love where I live though

Biggest problem is actually no broadband and poor mobile signal. Wasn't an issue when we bought in 1997

I have neither, nor water, these past 20 years and genuinely pity those who do.

But that's where you lived in Dublin. I haven't got a taxi in six years in Dublin, it's all walk, bus & DART.

Not sure why you're taking this opportunity to bemoan your decision on where you lived in Dublin, the op is asking about rural v more rural, not rural v urban.

Was about to say.

A real downside to rural is if you or your dependants or helpers can't or won't drive for health, financial, ... reasons.

Also, even safe walking and exercise space can be totally car dependent in rural areas

If someone gets to the stage that they can't drive, they probably won't be able to do much walking either!

Definitely not true.

Normally it's vision problems or the person has lost either the physical or cognitive ability to react to situations involving high speed metal boxes but are well able to to operate at walking pace.

Living rurally can increase the care burden on your children later in life.

A big decision to make but things to consider when you are buying as it may not be as easy as you think to sell up and buy elsewhere, a few thoughts i had reading this thread if they are in anyway helpful to you.

• While the acre of land is a bonus, which one of you will be cutting the grass? it might seem trivial, but when you are cleaning a bigger house, and cutting an acre of grass/around tree's etc the novelty of the ride on lawnmower wears thin.
• Can you walk/bus/taxi anywhere nearby? as said once you get into the car the rest of the journey time barely matters, what is important is what way are the roads, do they get treacherous in icy weather? (inclines?, too rural to be gritted? etc), What is your back up? what if one of you breaks a leg and an arm (it happens more than you'd think) and ends up in a wheelchair? or can't drive for whatever reasons? would you be fine to live where the house is? Do you have support/contacts?
• Phone/broadband reception, so many people i know have bought recently and this seems to be an afterthought until they need it and they come looking for what they can get. Even in Cities/towns internet can be poor so what's it like in both locations. good mobile signal is hard to beat as you can personal hotspot if you need to. but poor mobile signal will have you forever with missing calls as they are going straight to voicemails and not being able to do simple things online on your phone. Check Siro/Eir fibre rollouts to see which if any each house has or if it is coming very soon. but nothing worse than moving in and finding your house has no internet or very very bad internet (has happened more than one friend)
• are either houses on mains water or well water, when was the last time either was maintained properly (you'd be surprised at how many people are on well water that hasn't been touched since they bore the well) ditto for waste water, these are things that impact rural which city or town people take for granted. if you can talk to neighbours about power outages, how long do they typically last etc, some areas are slower to come back on board than others and if you plan to work from home this will be relevant.
• If children are part of future plans how will they fit into each location, can they walk/cycle/bus to school/friends houses nearby or not. you'd be surprised how many rural kids feel a burden on mom and dad for lifts. it's a lot easier when they can walk/cycle/bus around with friends. (also for social reasons) Are you ok with playing taxi/school run person for years? bonus is though they tend to learn to drive sooner than their peers out of necessity.
• Old age, you might be young and think its so far away but it catches up quick, and being rural and elderly is very tough, if you are considering moving back to town in old age will you find it easy to give up the homestead you lived your life in? it might seem an odd thing for me to type, but sentimental types are better buying their "forever home suitable for all stages of life" from the off if they can, rather than having to up sticks and move later in life or worse stay in an unsuitable home because it's too hard to leave (which so so many people do)