Honesty in advertising, if not at all pretty

I daresay if you're in the market for a "pre-owned" stained, damaged and scummy "trailer-park" home this might be just the thing:



(thru Kenneth in the (212))

Oh, and a Happy New Year to everybody!

North [of Scotland] 'cheapest for seaside home'

If you want to have a home at the seaside, and many people do, then the least expensive part of the country to achieve this ambition is the north of Scotland, according to this report based on a property survey by Bank of Scotland. Perhaps unsurprisingly the least expensive seaside location (in a town) is Wick. There are certainly spectacular locations there, but it can be both bleak and 'bracing' and probably attracts only a relatively small number of people from outside the area who seek actively to live there. The prices are merely a reflection of market supply and demand for this location.

The other 'cheapest' locations are apparently Girvan, Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Thurso. The final three suffer/benefit (depending on what you are looking for) from many of the same characteristics as Wick, in my view. As for Girvan, it is located in the south-west of Scotland on the Clyde coast, parts of which have traditionally been sought out by wealthier Glaswegians who wish to have a home near the seaside. Quite why Girvan is different is unclear to me, but there must be specific local conditions for its position in this particular survey.

Now for the five 'most expensive' seaside locations (St Andrews, North Berwick, Nairn, Dunbar, Dalgety Bay). I'd say that apart from generally being more attractive places, although I'm not familiar personally with North Berwick or Dunbar (but from what I've heard), but they all share a couple of other characteristics. Each is home to, or is close to, at least one well-known golf course and all have pretty good transport links and are not too distant from conurbations to which people might commute for work. I happen to live in Nairn, as readers of this blog will be aware, and it is certainly a pretty location with many attractions. There are downsides to living here too, of course - lousy winter weather (like the whole of the UK!) and great distance from the Channel Tunnel or a major airport - apart from those, however, I can think of few negatives. And the long daylight hours in the north of Scotland during the summer months and living as I do about 50 yards from a beautiful beach in a designated 'green area' of the town are certainly some of the area's major attractions for me.

PS/ Further to my post here, last night was the first in the last five that I have managed to have a semi-decent number of hours of uninterrupted sleep as the pain was not quite so intense, but courtesy probably of better pain-management rather than any underlying change, even if the shingles rash now seems to be under control, although still scary to look at.