A west coast island, only 90 minutes from central Glasgow, has been named as Scotland’s best place to live by a panel of judges.
The Isle of Bute took the top spot in the annual Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide.
Six other locations were featured in the list, which was released online on Friday.
In coming up with the list, which features 70 locations across the UK, the judges consider a range of factors including schools, transport and broadband as well as culture, green spaces and the health of the local high street.
Judges said Bute was “head and shoulders above all the other Scottish islands for commutability” as well as being “full of adventurous locals fizzing with ideas to make their neighbourhoods shine”.
The average house price on the island is £155,000, according to the Halifax, which is the sponsor of the guide.
Joining Bute on the list were six other areas from around Scotland.
In ranked order, the complete list is:
- Isle of Bute, Argyll (Winner)
- Braemar, Aberdeenshire
- Culross, Fife
- Dunblane, Stirling
- Shawlands, Glasgow
- Melrose, Borders
- North Berwick, East Lothian
Helen Davies, property editor for The Times and Sunday Times, said: “The Sunday Times Best Places to Live list is necessarily subjective. Leave it just to statistics and you will never capture the spirit of a place. For that, you need to visit to take into account that ‘you have to be here’ feeling. Is the pub dog-friendly, for example? Can you live car-free? What are the schools and houses like?
“Is it multicultural and multigenerational, and can it offer a good way of life to lots of different sorts of people?.”
She added: “Ten years ago, when we launched the inaugural list, London’s gravitational pull was strong, the WFH (work from home) revolution had not yet reached our doorstep and high streets were stacked with chains. How times have changed — and how welcome that change is.
“This year we have discovered new best places to live, from resurgent city centres in the North, rejuvenated suburbs across the country, hidden villages in the South West, and a commutable Scottish island. We hope there is something to suit everyone.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel