Looking at property in Moray
Discussion
I’m looking at relocating to Scotland. I know Moray is a beautiful part of the country and have visited a few times, although not for a few years. But I haven’t had a driving holiday in that area.
What’s the driving like around the Elgin area, and also east of Elgin, in those areas north and west of Aberdeen? And south of Elgin through the Cairngorms down towards Perth?
Thanks.
What’s the driving like around the Elgin area, and also east of Elgin, in those areas north and west of Aberdeen? And south of Elgin through the Cairngorms down towards Perth?
Thanks.
Lovely coastline in Moray.
In terms of driving you're not far from the popular Cairn O Mount road that a lot of people drive. Within easy reach of the Cairngorms as mentioned above, including the Old Military Road from Grantown-on-Spey to Blairgowrie - stunning drive, even coming back the same way.
The road from Grantown to Nairn is a cracker too.
Depending where you're moving from, I'm sure you'll be able to find lots of good roads to stretch the cars legs!
In terms of driving you're not far from the popular Cairn O Mount road that a lot of people drive. Within easy reach of the Cairngorms as mentioned above, including the Old Military Road from Grantown-on-Spey to Blairgowrie - stunning drive, even coming back the same way.
The road from Grantown to Nairn is a cracker too.
Depending where you're moving from, I'm sure you'll be able to find lots of good roads to stretch the cars legs!
I have nipped over to Applecross/Torridon for lunch while staying in Nairn, so there are some great roads and scenery within easy reach. The A96 can get a bit tedious as it has a lot of roundabouts but it's a lovely pat of the world. My brother was in Macduff for a few years so I spent a bit of time up around there and still go up to that area for the occasional week holiday.
GinSour said:
Lots of good driving roads in Moray, Aberdeenshire and Cairngorms.
Alford - Cabrach - Dufftown road is one of the ones i like. Few other crackers mentioned above...
Have you thought of property in Aberdeenshire at all?
Thanks everyone for the info/suggestions.Alford - Cabrach - Dufftown road is one of the ones i like. Few other crackers mentioned above...
Have you thought of property in Aberdeenshire at all?
I’m currently looking anywhere from Nairn across to Banff, and as far south as Grantown-on-Spey in the West and across to Insch or Inverurie in the East. I’m not too fussy, other than I’d prefer closer to the coast and ideally rural. But very happy to hear suggestions?
Last year I was looking for a holiday house - Nairn and Cullen were my two favourites. Portsoy is a nice wee spot too. We even enjoyed a few days in Lossiemouth. It's a pretty big step so I would suggest spending at least a week up there looking about. It's a great coast in summer - most of the rain falls before it travels that far east but it's been the only place I have been so cold I had to wear two hats in winter.
BorkBorkBork said:
Thanks everyone for the info/suggestions.
I’m currently looking anywhere from Nairn across to Banff, and as far south as Grantown-on-Spey in the West and across to Insch or Inverurie in the East. I’m not too fussy, other than I’d prefer closer to the coast and ideally rural. But very happy to hear suggestions?
Might come a bit bias as i am Inverurie born and raised. I’m currently looking anywhere from Nairn across to Banff, and as far south as Grantown-on-Spey in the West and across to Insch or Inverurie in the East. I’m not too fussy, other than I’d prefer closer to the coast and ideally rural. But very happy to hear suggestions?
Huntly/Insch/Inverurie/Kintore have the rail and bus links to Inverness and Aberdeen (if that makes a difference). Inverurie and Kintore would be my pick out of them.
If links don't matter there is Rothienorman, a village 12 or so miles north of Inverurie. Also the up the coast with Portsoy/Cullen they are all nice places.
Can't add much to the above in terms of driving. You have a huge area in terms of location you seem to be looking at, but plenty of choice. Lovely part of the world, and lots to do.
As noted above, A96 is hellish - should have been dualled a long time ago and using it can be painful at rush hour/mid weekend. Traffic in Elgin can be surprisingly bad due to huge amounts of new housing going up. Higher quality housing in the area is also more than you might expect due to impact of RAF Lossiemouth investment and also local hospital.
For rural areas, and if not needing to "commute", traffic should be much less of an issue - just time your visits to "town" appropriately.
"town centres" vary - Elgin pretty awful, but the likes of Grantown are good.
Winters will be colder with more snow/ice (climate change permitting) - the further you get from the coast the greater the impact. There is a limit to how quickly rural roads get cleared/gritted in the winter depending on where you are so take that into account.
As noted above, A96 is hellish - should have been dualled a long time ago and using it can be painful at rush hour/mid weekend. Traffic in Elgin can be surprisingly bad due to huge amounts of new housing going up. Higher quality housing in the area is also more than you might expect due to impact of RAF Lossiemouth investment and also local hospital.
For rural areas, and if not needing to "commute", traffic should be much less of an issue - just time your visits to "town" appropriately.
"town centres" vary - Elgin pretty awful, but the likes of Grantown are good.
Winters will be colder with more snow/ice (climate change permitting) - the further you get from the coast the greater the impact. There is a limit to how quickly rural roads get cleared/gritted in the winter depending on where you are so take that into account.
s2kjock said:
Can't add much to the above in terms of driving. You have a huge area in terms of location you seem to be looking at, but plenty of choice. Lovely part of the world, and lots to do.
As noted above, A96 is hellish - should have been dualled a long time ago and using it can be painful at rush hour/mid weekend. Traffic in Elgin can be surprisingly bad due to huge amounts of new housing going up. Higher quality housing in the area is also more than you might expect due to impact of RAF Lossiemouth investment and also local hospital.
For rural areas, and if not needing to "commute", traffic should be much less of an issue - just time your visits to "town" appropriately.
"town centres" vary - Elgin pretty awful, but the likes of Grantown are good.
Winters will be colder with more snow/ice (climate change permitting) - the further you get from the coast the greater the impact. There is a limit to how quickly rural roads get cleared/gritted in the winter depending on where you are so take that into account.
Thanks for that. I’ve extended my search area south of Grantown, as the Cairngorms is such a beautiful area. But I’m mindful of the winters up there, and how being closer to the coast will help with that. Lots to think about.As noted above, A96 is hellish - should have been dualled a long time ago and using it can be painful at rush hour/mid weekend. Traffic in Elgin can be surprisingly bad due to huge amounts of new housing going up. Higher quality housing in the area is also more than you might expect due to impact of RAF Lossiemouth investment and also local hospital.
For rural areas, and if not needing to "commute", traffic should be much less of an issue - just time your visits to "town" appropriately.
"town centres" vary - Elgin pretty awful, but the likes of Grantown are good.
Winters will be colder with more snow/ice (climate change permitting) - the further you get from the coast the greater the impact. There is a limit to how quickly rural roads get cleared/gritted in the winter depending on where you are so take that into account.
Can you say any more about your circumstances? You say relocating, so this isn't a second/holiday home, right?
Retired or work from home? Kids coming too? Hobbies? Do you holiday abroad, or need to return south often? Got any friends in Scotland you'd like easy access to? Style of property/approx budget? Number of garages
?
We might be able to narrow down your search or recommend some areas.
Retired or work from home? Kids coming too? Hobbies? Do you holiday abroad, or need to return south often? Got any friends in Scotland you'd like easy access to? Style of property/approx budget? Number of garages
? We might be able to narrow down your search or recommend some areas.
s2kjock said:
Winters will be colder with more snow/ice (climate change permitting) - the further you get from the coast the greater the impact. There is a limit to how quickly rural roads get cleared/gritted in the winter depending on where you are so take that into account.
there is a reason why the RNAS/RAF put the airfields at Kinloss & Lossiemouth. They are in a micro-climate that extends a few miles either side along the coast & gets less snow than other places that really aren't that far away at all.There were a large number of airfields right across Moray built during WW2 principally for training pilots as it was far enough away from the Nazis to be fairly safe - I guess the climate helped also, although that had never occurred to me before. Plenty flat land on the Laich of Moray.
Shame they were not able to build Dalcross a bit closer to Inverness
I learnt the basics of car control, as did many others, at one of these old airfields before I was old enough to be allowed out on the road - I think it is all closed off now, but bizarre to think that it was such a wide open concreted space that the general public "had access to" - happy days.
I this had been much further south someone might have had a go at turning one or two of these into motor-racing circuits.
Shame they were not able to build Dalcross a bit closer to Inverness
I learnt the basics of car control, as did many others, at one of these old airfields before I was old enough to be allowed out on the road - I think it is all closed off now, but bizarre to think that it was such a wide open concreted space that the general public "had access to" - happy days.
I this had been much further south someone might have had a go at turning one or two of these into motor-racing circuits.
s2kjock said:
There were a large number of airfields right across Moray built during WW2 principally for training pilots as it was far enough away from the Nazis to be fairly safe - I guess the climate helped also, although that had never occurred to me before. .
You will find many airfields (in Scotland at least) & mostly ex-military built in areas of better micro-climates of one type or another (less precipitation, wind or whatever), many of them being near the coast but especially on the East for obvious reasons when aircraft didn't have the range or speed that they now have. Prestwick e.g. has probably the best weather record of any airfield in the UK often being open when many others have closed.Just back from a week hol over there. Stayed at Tugnet between Elgin & Buckie.
great to watch the Ospey, Dolphins and Seals but found the towns/villages a bit run down.
Elgin not what we expected, ditto Lossiemouth, Buckie, Portknockie etc Good little Motor Museum in Elgin though and nice museum in Fochabers.
Marvellous Fish & chips in Portknockie.
Thought Cullen & Findhorn OK but could definitely be a culture shock from southern England. We live Oban on the west coast.
great to watch the Ospey, Dolphins and Seals but found the towns/villages a bit run down.
Elgin not what we expected, ditto Lossiemouth, Buckie, Portknockie etc Good little Motor Museum in Elgin though and nice museum in Fochabers.
Marvellous Fish & chips in Portknockie.
Thought Cullen & Findhorn OK but could definitely be a culture shock from southern England. We live Oban on the west coast.
Skyedriver said:
Elgin not what we expected, ditto Lossiemouth, Buckie, etc
What were you expecting out of interest? I haven't been to Buckie for 30 years so no idea what it is like now. The others I do know fairly well.Findhorn is lovely, but busy in the summer and house prices are (relatively) high - closest we get to the "English Riviera"
- always seems bleak in the winter as there isn't much protection from the wind tearing in from the Moray Firth. Bay looks good on paper for boating activities, but it does dry out a lot at low water with a tricky access to outside.There is a definite micro climate in the Moray Firth area (it was one of the reasons the RAF bases were built there).
It is referred to in Eric Brown's autobiography as the "Lossie Hole"
If you are coming up the A96 in an open topped car in summer you usually feel it (approximately) when you reach the Fochabers roundabout.
The temperature can climb about 2 centigrade just as you pass there.
It is referred to in Eric Brown's autobiography as the "Lossie Hole"
If you are coming up the A96 in an open topped car in summer you usually feel it (approximately) when you reach the Fochabers roundabout.
The temperature can climb about 2 centigrade just as you pass there.
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