Nice towns and villages around Glasgow

A question about : Nice towns and villages around Glasgow

Hi hi,

looking to buy a house in 2009 around Glasgow (anywhere around it) and I'm looking for suggestions for nice places. Criteria is basically

- 1 hour max by train to Glasgow (I work from home but may need to commute in the future, don't want to drive every day)
- clean and safe
- good school(s)
- not inner cityish

We have just moved back to Scotland from London, I grew up in the Highlands so don't know around Glasgow that well. For an example, a place we love so far is Lanark. We'd like to find some more places though to keep our options open.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Best answers:

• I would rent before you buy to make sure you like the area. Lanark looks pretty but would drive me daft as it is difficult drive into Glasgow and does not have good shops etc but I know people who love staying there. I'm sure that you can get school league tables on line so would check that out also.
• Thanks! Yes that road is a bit windy but it doesn't bother us (actually we love the area and scenery after coming from London). Don't think we'd rent first as son goes to school where we are now (Largs - talking of windy roads to Glasgow!), don't want to move him then find we need to move again. We will have to be sure 100% that we like to place, so lots of work still to do!
  Any suggestions on other areas plleasee??
• Have you thought about more coastal areas in Ayrshire like Troon or Ayr? Ayr is about fifty minutes away from Glasgow on the train and roughly the same driving.
• Thanks, we have looked around there. We love Troon but it's very expensive.
  Is Hamilton ok? Seems quite reasonable compared to Lanark and much better connected for Glasgow.
• Hamilton's a wee bit mix'n'match, good parts & bad. Compares very well compared to Motherwell just across the Clyde. East Kilbride's another good alternative.
  Don't rule out Lanark though. By train you'd get into Glasgow within an hour, probably by car too if you went via Carluke>Garrion Bridge>M74 route. Despite what a contributor above said, Lanark's shops aren't too bad. It's got a Somerfield & Tesco, a small retail park with Argos, Halfords, Homebase & Pet City plus lots of little specialists shops. Lots of garden centres too if that's your thing. Lanark Grammar School has an excellent reputation & the town itself just grows on you the longer you live there. It's such a quiet place. You'll love it.
  And we're moving back there once my I get my transfer through work !
• Hamilton is fine in parts in a bit dodgy in others. Bishopbriggs, Kirkintilloch, Lenzie and all quite nice too. Lenzie is quite expensive though.
• Thanks for the suggestions, promise we'll check them all out!
  We are keeping our options open and looking around, no rush in this market but we certainly love Lanark. If the shops are substandard that's totally perfect!! The wife can go to Glasgow and give me peace to watch the footie.
  Many thanks again.
• Strathaven is a lovely town, and the schools are amongst the top rated in Scotland
  here's a link
  https://www.strathaven.org/
• Bearsden is another nice place but very overpriced. Depends on how much you want to spend on property i suppose
• Thorntonhall is another nice area but pricey
• Helensburgh? It's just in Argyll but has a regular commuter train into Glasgow!
  And you can hop on a train to Oban/Fort William for days out? Nice golf course just up the A82. Loch Lomond for boating. Balloch for shopping.
• im in motherwell,i wouldnt recommend moving here to be honest,well not just now anyway.
  i also wouldnt recommend hamilton,it has nice parts but they are just to close to the not so nice parts.
  also forget larkhall unless you enjoy being surrounded by mindless bigots and not having anything in the town with the colour green in it,including cars, telecom boxes and even traffic lights.
  if i were you i would look at places like strathaven,lovely village,good pubs and generally friendly place with the countryside at your finger tips,but can be a bit backwards at times.
  or what about dumbarton area? close to the city centre but equally as close to loch lomond.
  or maybe falkirk area? plenty of nice housing developments being built there and handy for stirling and glasgow.
• Many of the towns like Strathavan have as much trouble as the larger towns. Some of the good schools are OK if you have bright kids but don't deal well with young people who don't mix well or under achieve. A town mentioned earlier in the discussion (not in this post) with a good school has a real problem with bullying. You need to get to know an area to see if it suits you.
• Thanks a lot for the suggestions and advice.
  Strathaven doesn't have a train station so that's a showstopper for us. We'll definitely check out the others though, infact we're going to see some today.
  Was in Hamilton yesterday watching the football, took a wee drive around and thought it looked ok. Understand about it being very mixed now though. We saw some nice houses but right next to them some awful looking ones, half of which were boarded up!
  Definitely agree with getting to know the place thoroughly, especially as we don't want to move again after this for a long time (we've been moving around loads in the past few years).
  Many thanks again!
• What about Kirkintilloch? My daughter lives there & loves it. She did not come from there originally but when she moved there 3yrs ago the neighbours welcomed her with open arms. It is a very nice street she stays in, all the gardens are very tidy & well looked after. She commutes to the west end of Glasgow & thinks it is ok.
  Moneysaver
• Stirling has good travel links - about 30miles from Glasgow. Different house prices for different areas.
• If you want to get a lot more bricks for your pound, then you'd be surprised how much cheaper things are south of Ayr. Girvan is currently really well priced, For example 4 bed ensuite bedroom house with Wimpey selling Troon area for near Ј300k is Ј100k cheaper in Girvan.
  Schools are quite good too. A77 road improvements and the train mean that Girvan is only just over an hour from Central Glasgow by road or train (it takes me about 1hr 15, hubby does it within the hour!!)
  Ј30bn being invested in Turnberry Hotel to take it to 7 star status means the area is looking quite good.
  Thing with Scotland all over is that there are no clear "good" and "bad" areas, it is much more jumbled up than most towns down south. For example, if you take Troon, most of the houses with the sea views are the housing association ones (but that's just because they act as a windbreak for the posh houses )
• Strathaven doesn't have a train station but excellent reliable express bus service direct to Glasgow (the bus often made it into Glasgow when cars didn't :confused: ) It's a good place to live with younger kids, not so good for teenagers. Similarly other places around the Clyde valley, and although no train stations, many people I know park and ride at Larkhall station.
  You can get an express train from Stirling to Glasgow (25 minutes) or 40 minutes for the usual trains - about 4 an hour. (I live in Stirling so biased - I love it - great place to live). Good shopping centre, good restaurants and you can be in the wilds in 15 minutes.
  Used to live in Hamilton - can't think of anything to say that would recommend it! Also lived in EK but it's changed so much since then no idea what it's like now.
  I've always had to be able to travel to the East, North and South with work so have never considered Ayrshire or Renfrewshire. I couldn't bear the thought of driving on the M8 regularly...
  Hope you find something!