Moving from ROI to the North

original_fish

Hi,

My wife and I are English and not religious (although brought up Church of England).

We are thinking of moving from the Republic to a small town/village near Belfast, preferably with a train station for easy commute.

I had thought Carrickfergus or Whitehead or Bangor or Hollywood or Glenisland.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to where is a good place to live would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

martinedwards

Carrickfergus or Whitehead or Bangor or Holywood or (assuming you actually meant) Greenisland.

All of them have cheaper former council houses and more up market private housing.

Ok..... North of the Lough in order from Belfast are Greenisland Carrickfergus Whitehead

Whitehead is a small place, and although there is a train service, it's a bit out in the sticks. few amenities.

Greenisland is a dormitory town. a few small shops, a cricket club, a rugby club, no Pubs that I can think of, and good access to the good schools in Jordanstown and Carrickfergus.

Carrick is the biggest of the three and has the most going on. leisure centre, big supermarkets, cinema, pubs, hotels, good schools. It also has the reputation of being VERY protestant in the Northern Ireland sense of the word........... Some of the estates are .... colourful. The private residential areas are perfectly fine.

On the Southern side of the lough, Holywood is a lovely small town but will be expensive.

Bangor is bigger in size than any of the places you've mentioned and has a wide range of housing, less overtly political than Carrick, and if you have the funds to be buying in a nice area, they are VERY nice indeed.

I grew up near Bangor, now live about 4 miles from Greenisland (my son went to the excellent football club there all through his childhood) and my wife has taught in Carrick for nearly 30 years.

PERSONALLY, as a middle class, non political sort of guy, if Money was no limiting factor (LOL!) id rank them at Bangor Holywood Greenisland Carrickfergus Whitehead.

come up for a weekend and do a train tour!

sdraobs

Thanks for that very helpful post.

Please excuse my ignorance, i have no prejudice, but im from the south and i never hear of any family friends ever going up to the north for their summer holidays.

I'm keen to visit belfast, and the wife wants a summer holiday near the coast, so i see Bangor has Pickie Family Fun Park, a walled garden. enough for at least a weeks trip.

im not political at all, but would i find the people there a bit standoffish or something - would i find them a bit 'who do they southerners think they are coming up and thinking they can just stay.' again, excuse me if im wide of the mark, and my ignorance.

in my only ever trip to NI, I went up to some posh hotel north of eniskillen for one night a couple of years ago and found the hotel staff very rude. i wondered if it was cause im the salt of the earth or a thick paddy.

martinedwards

nah, some posh hotels are rude just to show how posh they are!

Belfast is absolutely buzzing at the moment.

we did a night out a few months back and stayed in 10 square.

went for a walk round town before dinner and the place was packed. lots of life and a bunch of those mad 10 person booze bikes..... just so lively!

then Sunday morning, after breakfast, into St George's Market. Had to be at least 10 different languages spoken by the people walking round. such a change from the 80s when I was at Uni.

Bangor would be a nice base. the coast is beautiful, and there are loads of parks.... near to Mount Stewart, where some Game of thrones was filmed.... and if youhave kids a walk up to Scrabo tower in Newtownards is enough to make it feel like a climb, but not enough to actually kill anyone! really nice Killynether park right beside it that folks often miss.

and if I'm making recommendations, the best cinnamon scones in the country are in the Baytree in Holywood.

I don't work for the tourist board..... maybe I should!

sdraobs

martinedwards wrote: »

nah, some posh hotels are rude just to show how posh they are!

Belfast is absolutely buzzing at the moment.

we did a night out a few months back and stayed in 10 square.

went for a walk round town before dinner and the place was packed. lots of life and a bunch of those mad 10 person booze bikes..... just so lively!

then Sunday morning, after breakfast, into St George's Market. Had to be at least 10 different languages spoken by the people walking round. such a change from the 80s when I was at Uni.

Bangor would be a nice base. the coast is beautiful, and there are loads of parks.... near to Mount Stewart, where some Game of thrones was filmed.... and if youhave kids a walk up to Scrabo tower in Newtownards is enough to make it feel like a climb, but not enough to actually kill anyone! really nice Killynether park right beside it that folks often miss.

and if I'm making recommendations, the best cinnamon scones in the country are in the Baytree in Holywood.

I don't work for the tourist board..... maybe I should!

hahaha, maybe you should work for the tourist board.

Thanks a million for that. I'm going to book something this evening in Bangor. ill seek out those cinnamon scones.