By Shawna Cordonnier, Travel Advisor, Sacramento Travel
Americans plan Scotland around rain. Scots plan it around midges. Learning to think about it the second way will improve your trip more than any weather forecast.
The short answer
May and September are the best months to visit Scotland. Long daylight, the fewest midges of the warm season, everything open, and — in September — prices that fall off a cliff the moment the Edinburgh festivals end.
Skip August unless you are going for the festivals. More on that below, because it is the single biggest cost variable in Scottish travel.
The midge
The Highland midge is a small biting fly that appears in the west Highlands and the islands from roughly late May through early September, peaking in July and August. They swarm in still, damp, overcast conditions, worst at dawn and dusk, and they are not a minor annoyance — a bad evening on the west coast in July can drive you indoors.
Three things worth knowing:
- They hate wind. Anything above about seven miles an hour grounds them, which is why a breezy coast is fine and a sheltered glen is not.
- The east is far better than the west. Edinburgh, the Cairngorms and the Aberdeenshire coast are largely spared.
- The local remedy is Avon Skin So Soft. Not a joke — the dry oil spray is sold in Highland shops and used by ghillies, foresters and the Royal Marines. Buy it when you arrive.
May and early September sit either side of the peak, which is most of why they are the best months.
The daylight swing is bigger than you expect
Scotland is far north — Edinburgh sits above Moscow's latitude. In mid-June the Highlands stay light past 11pm and never go fully dark. In late December, Inverness loses the sun before 3:30pm.
That swing changes what a day can hold more than the weather does. A June day gives you sixteen usable hours of driving and walking. A December day gives you six.
Month by month
January and February. Dark, cold and cheap. Some Highland roads and many rural attractions close. Burns Night on 25 January and Up Helly Aa in Shetland at the end of the month are both real events worth traveling for. Edinburgh is atmospheric and empty.
March and April. Lengthening days, low crowds, good value. Snow lingers on the tops into April, which is when the Highlands photograph best. Lambing season. My pick for anyone who wants Scotland without other people.
May. The best month. Long light, few midges, everything reopening, and — counterintuitively — statistically one of the driest months in the west Highlands. Book early; it is not a secret among the British.
June. Peak daylight and the last good window before the midges commit. Beautiful, and busier than May.
July and August. Warmest, busiest, and the midge peak in the west.
August is also the Edinburgh problem. The Fringe, the International Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo run through most of the month. The city roughly doubles in population, accommodation costs two to three times normal and books a year ahead, and getting across town takes twice as long. It is one of the great cultural events on earth and it is a terrible time to visit Edinburgh casually. Decide which trip you are taking.
September. My other pick, and the better value of the two. Midges fading, heather still purple on the hills into the first week or two, crowds gone, and Edinburgh's rates collapse the week the Fringe ends. If you want one month, take the second half of September.
October. Autumn colour in Perthshire and the Trossachs, thinning daylight, low prices. Some Highland businesses close from mid-month.
November and December. Dark and quiet. Edinburgh's Christmas market and Hogmanay are genuine draws — Hogmanay in particular books far ahead and prices like a festival, because it is one.
If you are driving the North Coast 500
Two practical things. Go in May, September or October, not July — the route is heavily congested in summer and the villages along it have limited beds and fuel.
And learn the passing-place etiquette before you go: on single-track roads you pull into a passing place on your left to let oncoming traffic through, or pull in and wave faster traffic past. Visitors who do not do this are the main source of friction on that route.
What actually sets your dates
Not the rain — it rains in every month and the forecast is unreliable anyway. Three things:
Which coast. West Highlands and islands in May or September; the east and the Cairngorms are more forgiving all summer.
Whether you want the festivals. If yes, book August a year out and budget accordingly. If no, avoid it entirely.
How much daylight your itinerary needs. A driving trip through the Highlands wants long days. A city trip does not.
Getting there from Sacramento
There is no nonstop; you will connect through San Francisco or an East Coast hub, usually into Edinburgh or Glasgow via London or Dublin.
Travelling on to Ireland in the same trip? The Irish calendar runs on different logic, and the two do not always want the same month. Further north, Norway takes the daylight problem to its extreme.
Call Sacramento Travel at (916) 454-2858 and tell us whether you are headed west or east and whether the festivals matter. Those two answers pick the month, and the month picks almost everything else.