Weather and Climate, Best Time to Visit the North Highlands

The North Highlands are climatically split: while the west gets a great deal of rain, the east looks considerably sunnier. So when’s the best time to visit?

That said, you should always expect rain in Caithness and Sutherland. The Highlands aren’t so green for nothing. I’ve picked out two weather stations here as examples.

For Caithness I’ve used Wick, which sits right on the east coast. For Sutherland it’s Strathy, about 50 kilometres further inland from the east coast.

Overall the difference between the two weather stations isn’t yet that great. But a trend is already emerging: the further west, the more rain. If you look at weather data from the West Highlands coast, a dramatic picture emerges: in winter it rains a full three times as much there, and in summer still twice as much.

As in other parts of Scotland, May stands out as particularly low on rain and high on sunshine. The highest temperatures, though, come in July and August. Since midges appear less often in eastern Scotland than in the west, if you’re only doing an east coast trip you might even be able to pick a summer month. For everyone else, the same rule applies: midge season starts around mid-May and doesn’t end until mid-September.

Vegetation already bursts into glorious bloom by May, so you can look forward to a splash of yellow from the gorse.

In short: the usual rule applies for the west too – May is the best month to travel, weighing up sun, temperature and midges.