Weather and Climate, Best Time to Visit Inverness-shire

The Highlands’ Inverness-shire stretches from the west to the east coast – and between these two sides the weather swings dramatically. You’ll find the best time to visit here.

As weather stations we’re using Inverness and Dunstaffnage here. Dunstaffnage on the west coast sits a little further south than Inverness in the east.

Here too the Highlands’ old “times two” rule applies: double the amount of rain on the east coast, and you get the rain on the west coast. More simply comes in off the Atlantic than off the North Sea.

Temperatures are also noticeably better in Inverness. The same goes for the number of midges.

There is one outlier though: instead of May, in Inverness it’s April that has the least rainfall, so the recommendation for May isn’t quite so clear-cut there. On the west coast (Dunstaffnage), though, it’s May again that offers the best balance between sun, rain and midges.

In short: May is and remains the loveliest month on Scotland’s west coast…