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My wife and I are thinking of relocating: we want to be closer to the mountains and to have more of an outdoors community around. Trying to tie this in with work opportunities and family is proving quite tricky, so we'd really appreciate any advice from anyone more informed than ourselves! Looked through lots of old threads but couldn't find anything that exactly answered our questions.

Part of our reason for moving is wanting to make the mountains more accessible if we have a kid. We're currently hoping that it will be easier to keep climbing and walking if we can befriend other young families with similar interests... and figure that weekend trips would be much harder, so maybe if we can move to the mountains at least we can take it in turns to go for an evening the hills?! Is this likely to help or should we just accept that if there's a child around we won't be getting into the mountains at all anyway?

Currently it looks like our best options are somewhere commutable to Chester, living west of it to be closer to Snowdonia - or Kendal. 

So we're trying to find out....

What's the outdoor community like in North Wales outside of Llanberis (which is too far from family and work)? If we lived somewhere like Mold or Ruthin or along the coast, how easy would it be to make friends with outdoorsy types? Hoping to stay reasonably close to Chester to have access to a climbing wall. Is there anywhere else around there we should be considering?

We're really keen on Kendal but are struggling to find many houses available within budget and aware that even Kendal is actually still a drive from the mountains, particularly when it's busy - is traffic really awful during the summer or is it avoidable?

Any and all advice would be very welcome!!  

Kendal is a fantastic place to live. It's really not much of a drive to the mountains, and there's always somewhere quiet to explore. For example, probably the quickest jaunt up a proper hill is from longsleddale, a beautiful quiet valley just up the road. I avoid the lakes traffic, because there's so many other places to go on busy days (and I often just head out for an evening on the fells). 

The town has all amenities, plenty of young outdoorsy families, and is generally just extremely pleasant and well located. Hence the prices :/

You don’t mention anywhere north of the border but Edinburgh could have what you’re after. Decent hills/ cycling/ water on the doorstep, Highlands only 1hr drive north, lots of likeminded folk, plenty jobs (depending what sectors you work in...). 

If the OP is struggling to afford Kendal, I suspect Edinburgh might be a major stretch.

You can always get the bus instead, and that's not something you can say for many places.

T.

As Jon has said, Kendal’s great, but not an especially cheap place to buy. If house prices are the limiting factor, then possibly worth looking further North, (Penrith, Carlisle), or West, (Ulverston, Barrow). 

Traffic is an issue in the Lakes, especially during holiday periods, but with a bit of forethought, it’s easy to avoid the worst of it and still find seclusion.

It’s a fair point...

Hi.

I live near to Mold and it’s a good base for the hills. There are a few climbing clubs locally. 1hr 15 to Ogwen via Denbigh Moors or Clocaneog. It depends on which mountains you like. I’m not a Snowdonia fan to be honest so don’t use it as much as I could. Moel Famau is ten minutes and I go almost daily. House prices aren’t that high near Mold and there’s reasonable local amenities. Ruthin is a bit more shut off but closer to Snowdonia.

Personally, I prefer the Lakes but fate brought me here. It’s quite quiet but I never get too sad returning from the Lakes or Scotland.

When you are considering places like ruthin remember that you can get a long way west on the A55 in the same time it takes to drive the winding single carriageway roads away from the coast. 

Thanks all for the comments so far, it's been really helpful!

@inboard we would love to move up to Scotland, but sadly that got left on the cutting room floor due to the distance from family; even Kendal is pushing it!

@Jon Stewart thanks for the advice, it's good to know that there's some easily accessible quiet fells even during the peak season.  Do you ever venture up into the Howgills; I've heard that they're similarly deserted, and from looking at the map they don't look too far out either.

@Dave the Rave thank you that's really good to know about the climbing clubs, we weren't sure how big the climbing community in the North East of Wales was!

To support Dave the Raves comments,  I live in Mold,  The Clywdian Range is fantastic,  easily accessibly and varied.  Berwyns are not far and the other end of the spectrum,  and Snowdonia is not far.

Varied climbing options both trad and sport, Mountain Biking centres,  open water swimming,  hilly roads,  and white water all exist pretty close,  so dependent on what floats your boat you can get lots of options.  Oh and you can get to the Roaches in 90 mins.

I'm sure the options are wider if you go to the Lakes etc,  but I'm really settled around this patch.

A55 is a joke if you time it wrong,  but I don't think its as bad as many other major touristy routes.

I live in St Asaph, and I think it works well as an all round location. Right on the a55, it’s about 45 minutes to Ogwen, 35 minutes to Llanberis but the other way 30 minutes to Chester & about an hour to Liverpool & Manchester. A55 sport is pretty handy too! 

The howgills are perhaps the quickest hills to get to - 20 mins to Sedburgh. They're beautiful, the views are tremendous, but it's all very grassy rather than rocky. The whole of the northern Dales are very easy to access from Kendal - I've only been here a couple of years and have hardly scratched the surface of spectacular and deserted places to explore.

Maybe you won't necessarily find an outdoor community in the mountains.  I lived close to the McGillycuddy Reeks in Ireland.  All the neighbours were farmers and had no interest in mountains - Just farming.

That said I have absolutely no regrets.  If you want to move - move!  Or you'll spend years just wondering what it would have been like  had you moved.

I live near Kendal and it's a great town with an outdoorsy community, a really good wall and a mountain festival. There's several award winning real ale pub's and you can be climbing in the Lakes, the Dales or Lancashire within an hour. What's not to like?!?

What about Glasgow? Cheaper than Edinburgh and closer to the mountains. I lived there for 9 years and loved it. Quickest drive to Glen Coe from any significant scottish city.

"Hoping to stay reasonably close to Chester to have access to a climbing wall."

The Boardroom is buoyant with plenty of keen people, and the new spot up the road at Boulder Hut have made a brilliant start  - great facility and building a good crowd of repeat climbers. The Clwydians are brilliant running hills but not full on mountains. Plenty to get your teeth stuck into trad and sport with the recentish Clwydian Rockfax.

What about Llangollen and surrounds? It seems to be developing quite an outdoor buzz and if you aren't a welsh speaker, thats less of an obstacle to getting involved with the community. Its got some good shops, an arts/ music scene and some surprisingly good climbing/ walking/ watersports

Glasgow is a splendid place 

As Edinburgh has been mentioned I will mention Dunfermline as a possibility.  Easy access for up north and plenty around and about. Easy access to Edinburgh for work or pleasure. It's a pleasant little town with a decent park and some historical interest.

Steve 

My wife and I did this with 2 small children 5 years ago. We were desperate to move somewhere more mountainous but Snowdonia/Lakes were too far from family so we opted for the Black Mountains. We live 7 miles south of Hay-on-Wye. The hills are perfect for walking with children, it'shandy for all the MTB trail centres and today I did an 18km mountain bike ride in some stunning terrain straight out my front door. I can also run to the top of the Black Hill from my garden and the winter before last did a 150m ski descent in perfect powder. It's a pretty cool place to live. I could go on and talk about the Forest of Dean, Pembrokeshire, Gower, Cambrian mountains, Long Myndd, Rivers Wye and Usk, fantastic caving.....

I live in Cardiff and the climbing is cr*p. Just sayin'

Wye valley is good but I don't rock climb any more so don't care. But the Gower is not too far and you can have some fun on Gilwern hill or dodge rocks at Llangattock.

While I can't comment on the outdoors community if any, Ulverston is a very similar place to Kendal and loads cheaper due to being located in more of a backwater.