Hi,
almost moved up there myself, but deceided on Manchester...
£ 70k is a good salary in the UK. The average household income over here is about £35 k
I do not know about schools in scottland, but in England most people are very keen on private education. There are some good public schools as well, but you have to live in their area otherwise your kids can't go there. That means that usually around good schools property prices are higher.
In the UK in opposite to the Continent everybody buys property as soon as possible to jump onto the property ladder. That means buy something you can afford, live in it for 2 to 3 years, trust in rising property prices, sell and buy something a bit bigger. At present the property market is a bit shaken by the crisis in the US and prices are going down, although not as bad.
Weather: often dark, often cold, often rainy but other than that: scottland is beautyful