The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-10)

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Best Places to Live 2022

Scotland

A different take on island life leads a

selection full of surprises where scenery and

a laid-back work-life balance trump status

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICE

£202,000

Winner

ISLE OF BUTE, ARGYLL ✪

Bute might not beat Islay for whisky distilleries, or Skye for

awe-inspiring geology, but it stands shoulders above all the

other Scottish islands for commutability. This west coast

belter is only 90 minutes from Glasgow, meaning you’ll likely

be sat next to an islander headed to work on the mainland if

you catch the 6.25am CalMac sailing to Wemyss Bay.

Look past the pockets of deprivation by the police

station and a feeling of faded Victoriana on Rothesay’s high

street and you’ll find folk fizzing with ideas to make their

neighbourhoods shine. Adventurous new faces have long

flocked to Scotland’s fifth most populous island. Ruth Slater,

an artist, moved here in 2004 after living in the Australian

rainforest, and built a house with her husband close to Straad

village in the west. “Bute is what you make it,” she says.

“Within reason there is no hierarchy — people are hot on

helping each other out.”

Residents — who total about 6,000 — love to keep their

Bute-iful

The Esplanade

at Rothesay.

Inset right: Ruth

Slater, who

moved to the

island in 2004.

Below: Port

Bannatyne on

Bute. Left:

Braemar Castle

BRAEMAR, ABERDEENSHIRE A

Cashmere, culture, the crown

— and the Cairngorms. This is

Scotland at its most rugged,

dramatic and beautiful, and at

1,100 feet above sea level,

living in Braemar is elevated

in more ways than one. Queen

Victoria loved visiting from

nearby Balmoral so much that

she bestowed royal status on

the Braemar gathering, the

village’s kilted feast of

caber-tossing. More recently,

it is art royalty that has

boosted the fortunes of the

boutique high street where

you can pick up Speyside

whisky truffles and quality

game, as well as hiking boots

and skis. Iwan and Manuela

Wirth, the Swiss art dealers,

have transformed a run-down

inn into the hyper-tartan

five-star hotel the Fife Arms,

and a second, the Invercauld

Arms, is being refurbished. Its

public bar is already open

with a roaring fire, pool table

and great beer (£5.50 a pint).

When Ros and Dave Evans

first moved to Braemar nearly

20 years ago there wasn’t so

much as a proper coffee shop.

Today they run the Hazelnut

Pâtisserie (with pastry chef

Mathilde Lacourière) and the

Braemar Brewing Co.“Just

look around you,” says Dave.

“You’re in the middle of the

hills, you’re in a national park.

It’s one of the most beautiful

places in the country.”

It’s not all easy living. The

nearest full-size supermarkets

are almost an hour’s drive

south (Aberdeen is 90

minutes east), and Braemar

holds the record for Britain’s

lowest recorded temperature

(minus 27.2 degrees in 1982).

Best place to live if... You

want to get away from it all,

except the finer things in life.

Best address Expect to pay

£400,000 for a cottage. About

half of the houses in Braemar

(pop. 450) are second or

holiday homes.

£245,000*

ANDREA PISTOLESI; IAN WOOLCOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK; DENISE BARNS/GETTY IMAGES; ROBERT HARDING/ALAMY; SIM CANETTY-CLARKE

*Source: Halifax

20 April 10, 2022