Atlantic islands off Scotland's west coast, with Gaelic still spoken and no shelter from anything. Daytime highs in the Hebrides run from about 7 °C in January to 15 °C in August, an annual range of roughly 9 °C.
On a strict reading, no month in the Hebrides clears every threshold for a hiking trip — the limits below are absolute, not relative to the region. That does not make it a bad destination; it means the trip has to be planned around a specific constraint rather than a season.
The binding constraint here is rainfall and temperature — that is what rules months out, not any composite judgement. January is the weakest month on these criteria.
What the Hebrides is known for
- The Cuillin ridge on Skye is the most serious mountaineering terrain in Britain
- The Callanish standing stones on Lewis predate Stonehenge
- Islay has nine working distilleries on an island of about 3,000 people
- Harris tweed is protected by its own Act of Parliament and must be woven at home in the Outer Hebrides
- May and June are typically the driest and clearest months, not high summer
Month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Precip mm | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7 | 4 | 157 | 21.2 |
| February | 7 | 4 | 131 | 19.0 |
| March | 8 | 4 | 117 | 18.6 |
| April | 10 | 5 | 91 | 16.4 |
| May | 12 | 7 | 92 | 17.4 |
| June | 14 | 10 | 100 | 18.0 |
| July | 15 | 11 | 112 | 19.9 |
| August | 15 | 12 | 122 | 20.5 |
| September | 14 | 11 | 137 | 19.3 |
| October | 11 | 8 | 161 | 20.9 |
| November | 9 | 6 | 162 | 21.1 |
| December | 7 | 4 | 170 | 21.1 |
Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a hiking trip is met across at least half the month.
Open Scottish Islands (Skye & the Hebrides) on the map →
Nearby regions
Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at Portree, Stornoway, Tarbert, Tobermory and Bowmore, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.