Balintore
Village · 1,101 residents
57Good
Good · better than 6 in 10 villages
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- Health scores 73, well above the typical 60
- Environment scores 72, well above the typical 60
Check before you view
- Radon: part of the area is in an affected zone, and a home test is cheap
- Transport scores 31, below the typical 60
- Property market scores 34, below the typical 60
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Map outline: Official settlement boundary (National Records of Scotland)
Is Balintore a good place to live?
Balintore scores 57/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for health (73) and environment (72).
It scores lowest on transport (31) and property market (34).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Balintore in Scotland, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Balintore
Balintore is the kind of place where the harbour and the sky do most of the talking — a scatter of houses along the Easter Ross coast, older stone cottages mixed in with newer builds, and not much in the way of passing traffic. You notice the fishing heritage before you notice anything else: this was a working coastal village, and it still carries that low, unhurried look rather than any polish for visitors.
The numbers behind that impression are stark, and worth sitting with rather than glossing over. Balintore sits in the very bottom decile for both deprivation and income across Scotland — as low as the scale goes — yet the place doesn't read as troubled on the ground. Median house prices around £220,000 are modest against national figures, and the trend has been quietly improving over recent years rather than volatile. That's the odd tension of a hamlet like this: the economic statistics say struggle, but the grades for environment, health and safety all come back well above the Scottish average, and safety itself has stayed flat rather than deteriorating. Council tax under a Band D property runs slightly below the national median too, which matters more here than in richer areas — every pound stretches further when incomes are tight.
There's a single school serving the area, which tells you plainly that this is a hamlet raising a small, settled population rather than a commuter suburb feeding a school run. The median age of 45.6 — several years above both the Scottish and regional averages — confirms that: this is a place of established households, retirees, and people who've made a deliberate choice to stay rather than young families in transit. Green space is modest in scale but present, a handful of pockets rather than sprawling parkland, enough for a dog walk and a look at the water rather than an afternoon's hike. Broadband is a genuine mixed bag — full-fibre coverage sits around 60%, respectable for a settlement this size, though you'd want to check your specific street before assuming speed.