If you’re considering a move this year, Garrington Property Finders' Best Places to Live in Scotland 2024 guide can help you identify places that offer the optimum blend of quality of life and strong value.
Garrington's data analysts have identified more than 160 cities, towns, and villages across Scotland that all score highly in at least one of four selection criteria – natural beauty, wellbeing, employment and connectivity plus value for money.
Top of this year’s ranking is Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, with three towns near Edinburgh making the top 15, including two in West Lothian.
This Best Places to Live 2024 index has been updated and expanded to factor in the price correction seen in some areas of Scotland during 2023. Despite the price inflation recorded at a national level, prices in several popular locations fell – making them even better value.
Garrington’s Best Places to Live in Scotland 2024 report is an impartial, objective ranking based on publicly available data. Their data team ranked 161 Scottish locations according to 12 separate criteria, including proximity to National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, air quality, crime figures, availability of high-paying jobs, transport and broadband connections.
1. Kirkintilloch
Top of this year’s ranking is Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, which combines two thousand years of history with stunning countryside, a vibrant town centre, and quick links to Glasgow. Fringed by the rolling hills of the Campsie Fells and straddling the Forth & Clyde Canal, Kirkintilloch scored highly in three of the four categories that determine the overall ranking. Photo: Google Maps
2. Blairgowrie and Rattray
Blairgowrie and Rattray are a gateway to the Scottish landscape at its most rugged and beautiful. The twin towns are in Perthshire, just south of the Cairngorms National Park and the UK’s largest ski resort. The location offers residents a bewitching choice of outdoor pursuits and stunning views, earning Blairgowrie and Rattray the top spot in the wellbeing category and 10th place in natural beauty. Photo: Google Maps
3. Crieff
Crieff is a Scottish market town in Perth and Kinross on the A85 road between Perth and Crianlarich, and the A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy. The A822 joins the A823 to Dunfermline. Crieff has become a hub for tourism, famous for whisky and its history of cattle droving. The study showed that the average price for a family home here is £244,000. Photo: Google Maps
4. Selkirk
Fourth on the list is Selkirk, where the average house price is £198.000. King Charles Coronation fever hit the Scottish Borders in May last year, with colourful knitted hanging baskets and a marvellous huge knitted crown perched on top of the towns main red post box. Photo: Phil Wilkinson