Inverness info required

[Julia]

Looking for basic information on where to live in Inverness, good schools and the areas to avoid, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Thumper]

Avoid the ferry,although it may have changed in recent years so might be ok now,used to have a house near raigmore,good area and good schools but cant for the life of me mind what it was called sorry! x

[Vistravi]

I have lived in holm dell estate and i'm currently in kinmylies. you do not want to live in smithton or the ferry(under kessock bridge according to my partner) smithton house are shoe boxes in general and the ferry is riddled with crime. One of my collegues lives there through no choice and she has told me alot about what goes on there. Cullodeen though far out from the centre is nice. By far out i mean it would be an hours walk on foot but that is the same for holm dell estate and kinmylies. The buses are regular all round the city if transport is an issue.

Holm is nice as its a quiet area but broadband speed is not very good. Kinmylies is nice and has a lovely view of inverness the higher you are. Hilton is not bad depending on where you get a house of course. City centre houses are a no go as they will be more expensive and being near the centre says it all. Raigmore estate is nice and is a good area.

Not sure about schools but there are roughly about 8 to 10 nurseries in inverness in total. Stay away from merkinch nursery, flippers and les enfants nursery in inshes. These nurseries have a high staff turn over and i know a few friends and collegues that have worked in these nurseries and from what they have said about the nurseries in general is not good. Les enfants nursery does have a high repuation but the manager does not care about children and because of this the staff she chooses are not up to scratch. A few parents who go to the nursery i work in put their child to les enfants first but pulled them out after a week. Hickory dickory daycare also has had a few a few bad reviews.

Nursery recomendations i must say are cradlehall as it is excellent.

For primary schools if you're into green energy and reclycling holm primary is the one for you.

[poppett]

Holm primary has an excellent reputation both in mainstream and special needs. It is quite a nice area to live too, although the houses further away at Holm mains are larger roomed than the shoe boxes closer to the school.

[sweetpea]

Avoid the ferry,although it may have changed in recent years so might be ok now,used to have a house near raigmore,good area and good schools but cant for the life of me mind what it was called sorry! x


Drakies? It's quite nice, so is some parts of Lochardil and Crown.

[©Amethyst]

Personally I find that Inverness is far different to what it was once like... it used to have some areas that were fantastic and the others were the pits. These days I feel that each area has been evened out - have heard talk of the council no longer homing certain groups in certain places. I've heard that they used to home the unemployed in South Kessock and the employed in various other areas.

I've just moved to Merkinch, and feel that it's a better place to live than it once might have been.

Have lived in Crown where I've had friends cars damaged, yet in Kinmylies and Merkinch, nothing (so far). Even had problems in Cradlehall (which on the surface looks like a lovely neighbourhood) with neighbours.

I don't know much of the schools and nurseries since I don't have children, but have a colleague living in Merkinch who drives her daughter to Crown Primary on her way to work, she chose Crown for her daughter as it's supposedly (statistically?) one of the best in Inverness.

[marlyn]

I can highly recommend Milton of Leys, moved here from Thurso 6 months ago and we are very happy.

The kids attend Inshes primary school and nursery, which are brand new and really good, and we are due to have our new primary school at milton of leys built and open for August 2011.

Nice thing about milton of leys is that we have very good access to all the amenities but are almost like a little village.

[squidge]

I like living out the Culloden Balloch Smithton area of Inverness. My 14 year old goes to Culloden Academy and we are very pleased with how he is doing. Milton of Leys is nice but its just houses - no shops or pubs or stuff. It depends on whether you want to be rural or on an estate I guess. I know that Croy and Ardersier Primary schools are both reckoned to be good ones. I go to a toddler group in Ardersier and the people are lovely. I dont have neighbours close by and that suits me just fine but it might not be what you want.

[ShelleyCowie]

My OH grew up in Culloden and loved it there. When i go down visitng to his parents in Culloden the area is lovely, very quiet. And lots of places to go walking which are lovely, even though i fell in a bog [disgust]

Anyways he says Culloden Academy was a great school to attend. :)

Yes its a bit away from Inverness city centre but there are buses going to and from the whole time. So its not so bad.