Places to live in Edinburgh with kids

Hi CathyV!

Welcome to Expat-Blog!

I`m sure that active members will soon respond to your query.

Wishing you all the best!

Regards
Sheetul

Hi Cathy,

I have recently moved to Edinburgh myself and I love it!!
So far I haven't found a place I don't like.
What kind of setting are you looking for? Do you want to be in the middle of the city or so you want to live in a small neighborhood?
My suggestion would be anywhere around The Meadows as there is a fantastic playground for your son.
Where are you moving from?
Katrine

We are in Beijing now.  Before that we lived in Denmark.  Originally from the US.  We are looking for something on the outskirts of the city, closer to Edinburgh University, if possible?  I will look at your suggestions.
Thanks,
Cathy

Hi Cathy.
I'm from Denmark!! That's so cool you lived there.
Before moving here I lived in the US for 18 years.
Edinburgh is an interesting place as we wanted to live central and not too far away from the city.....well, the city is so small that you can literally walk from one end to the other in 35 minutes. Do you have a chance to come over and take a look around? What kind of housing are you looking for? House? Flat? New? Old?
When are you coming here?
Kat

Hi

Wow,  Where are you from in Denmark?  We were in Arhus. Where did you live in the US?  I am from Buffalo, NY.  How long have you been in Edinburgh. We are moving to Edinburgh in Nov. We will probably stay in a B & B for the first few weeks,to look for some places to stay.  I would rather live in a house, attached is Okay, something with a back garden.  but a flat is okay too.  We will be staying for a year maybe 2, so we are looking to get something furnished or partly furnished.  My husband will be working at the University of Edinburgh so something close to that, with a good school or my son.

Cathy

Hi
I'm from Svendborg. I lived in NYC, NJ and Atlanta. If you want to live central in a house, be ready to pay for it. Rent is very expensive here and you don't get a lot for your money. If you are willing to live on the outskirts of Edinburgh in a suburban neighborhood then you should have no problem finding a house.
Katrine

I see this was from a couple years ago but thought I would see where you ended up living.  We are thinking of moving to scottland with our 3 kids, ages 3,6,and 8 with our dog
Any thoughts???

cathyV wrote:

Hi, I am new to forum.  We will be moving to Edinburgh in Nov.  My husband will be working at the University.  We will be staying for 1 to 2 years.  We are looking for places to live.  What areas have good local/state schools.  I have a five year old son.  Something with easy bus access, we won't have a car.  Are there bike paths within the city?  How easy is it to get around?

cathyV wrote:

We are in Beijing now.  Before that we lived in Denmark.  Originally from the US.  We are looking for something on the outskirts of the city, closer to Edinburgh University, if possible?  I will look at your suggestions.
Thanks,
Cathy

The outskirts? There are universities on the outskirts, but Edinburgh University isn't one of them. it's slap bang in the middle of the old city, so inner city on the south side.

Marchmont is close to the uni - on the other side of the Meadows, a massive park. It has a superb children's playground on the south east corner of the park - I think another poster also mentioned this. However, the housing in this area is pretty much all flats in old tenements. They have private gardens at the back which you usually need a key to enter. Just south of marchmont is an area called the Grange. Very expensive but they do have houses, as in large detached houses, £2000 a month or thereabouts price wise to rent. Two bedroom flats, fully renovated and possibly furnished, in Marchmont go for upwards of £1000 a month. Beware of HMOs though - flats rented to students on a per room basis, so tend to be rowdy, noisy and not always safe. Good schools in Marchmont (I would recommend James Gillespies rather than Sciennes. Sciennes is a good primary school but massive, as in getting on for 700 students.)

Plenty of bike tracks in and around Edinburgh, but they don't tend to be in that area, except coming from the town through the Meadows (the afore mentioned park just to the north of Marchmont).

With primary schools we are talking about huge variations in quality, and I do mean huge. Avoid Preston (near the Commonwealth swimming pool) and the one on the Canongate (Royal Primary), as in don't live in the part of the city which is the catchment area for these schools.Catchment area maps can be obtained via email form Edinburgh City Council.

The suburbs around the A702 are nice (not Tollcross, but from then on. So Bruntsfield, and Morningside. All around Colinton Road. And they have very good transport links, unlike, inexplicably Marchmont and the Grange. Closer to the city on that road, the east side is better than the west side.

Hello, we are from Vancouver BC and we are planninng to move to Edinburgh next Sept.  We have a 6yr. old son and want to find an area similar to the one we live in Vancouver.  We are in a area of Downtown called Coal Harbour.  It's in the city area of Vancouver but out of the business district and you can walk everywhere one either a seawall or paths thru the city or tube stations or biking paths.  Does this kind of neighbourhood exist in Edinburgh?  Safe, family orientated, well appointed primary schools, walking distance/biking/ or tubes to shops and attractions?  We want to live in a 3 bedroom flat or house with a bit of garden if that exists in the city.The main thing is we want to be able to walk around the city and not have to drive but in an area with a well appointed primary school and being able to walk to ammenities. Any help from families that live in the city with children would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Blueiss

Hi!

It depends on what you like and consider important....you mean  University of Edinburgh (not Napier)? There are several campus; one downtown (GeorgeSquare), another one a bit south (King's building campus), two university hospitals (Western general and Little France Campus which are opposite direction).
Let's pick GeorgeSquare and Kings building campus.... There is a nice area called Marchmond, close to a big park (the Meadows) and there is a lot of little shops and it is quite close to both campus.  Still a bit close to that area is Morningside and Bruntsfield, again lots of shops. The Meadows park is interesting for a kid, we go there at least 2-3 times a month with our 4.5yrs old daughter.
However personally we like a bit some space between the houses/flats and we prefer that to have directly access to commodity. We decide to live a bit farther (Greenbank village) , it is very quiet, some spaces, no shops, and a decent bus service. Me and my partner we are working as well at the university. The bus service is okay (not great during weekend thought).

If you use Google map or google earth, you can see some pictures around those area and can help you make a better decision.

Good luck!

Tlb