Inspiration

Reasons to visit Scotland in Spring

Sawday's Expert

5 min read

Spring sees Scotland in all its glory, with heather bursting out in purple swathes across the highlands, warmth returning to the coastal paths and city streets, but a dusting of frost often remaining on the hills, reminding you that you’re still up north. The festival season, although it’s never completely over, swings back into action and the wild places are full of life and colour. Combine all that with the sumptuous staples of whisky and food that runs from the finest dining to the deliciously dirty, and you’re in for a braw break. Here are just a few of the many reasons to visit Scotland in spring.

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Cairngorms, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness

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Landscape & wildlife

As it creeps up the UK, spring brings all the flowering and blooming to Scotland you’d expect, just a little later than down south. In the Cairngorms, a guided wildlife tour can be an informative and spectacular day out, while pretty much the whole country turns purple and yellow as the heather explodes into life. Long drives on the winding single track roads of the highlands get even longer as you stop at any point wide enough to jump out and take in the view.

For the birders among you, there might not be a better time than spring to visit Scotland. Ospreys and puffins return to nest, with the former harder to spot, as only a few breeding pairs live in the quieter parts of Speyside and the Cairngorms. The latter, the “clowns of the coast”, have several well-established colonies. The Isle of May and Bass Rock can be visited on day trips from Edinburgh (boats leave from North Berwick), but if you’ve decided to hit the western isles, then Mull is your best bet, and you’ll also have a chance of seeing the white-tailed eagles reintroduced in the 70s and 90s.

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Festivals & events

When you think of festivals in Scotland, you’ll probably go straight for the legendary Fringe in summer or the celebrations of Hogmanay, but spring sees more than enough going on to lure you not just to the capital, but deeper into Scotland. The Stanza Poetry Festival takes place in St Andrews in early March, with the Glasgow Comedy Festival later in the month. The Alchemy Film Festival, based in Hawick, is a great excuse to explore the Borders, while the Spring Fling is an open-studio event that’ll introduce to the incredible array of artists and artisans in Dumfries and Galloway. There are, of course, whisky festivals all across the country in May, with the Speyside event leading the charge.

If you’re set on visiting Edinburgh for a few days though, there’s plenty to keep you busy even if you’re not around in summer or new year. The Edinburgh Science Festival kicks off in early April, but if you want your eyebrows raised rather than singed, wait for late April’s Beltane, a modern take on an ancient fertility ritual held on Calton Hill in the centre of the city. It’s a pulsating night of drums, dancing, fire and costumes, somewhere between mardi gras and a riot.

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Seeing spring in (or from) the city

Even if you’re on a city break for the nightlife and the bustle, you might want to see a bit of spring colour in your few days away. Fortunately, both Edinburgh and Glasgow make this pretty easy, while in places like Aberdeen, on the coast, it’s almost unavoidable. In the first two, stunning Botanical Gardens in the heart of town will be in bloom and in Edinburgh, rows of cherry trees will send blossom spiralling to the ground in Prince’s Street Gardens, unmissably close to the castle.

From Glasgow, you can be on the banks of Loch Lomond in an hour’s drive north and Clyde Murshiel Regional Park, to the west of the city, has some lovely routes from the easy stroll of the 2km Lochshore Loop to the 10.5km Greenock Cut circular. If you’re Edinburgh based, then the Pentland Hills, just half an hour south, have a few lovely trails like the Harlaw Woodland Walk, which wind through its sharp, dramatic hillsides, but you don’t even need to go that far for some stunning views. Blackford Hill, on the western edge of the city and the more famous Arthur’s Seat on the eastern side both give you an incredible vantage point to look out over Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth beyond.

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The Loch Ness 360 Trail

Years in the planning, the LN360 is finally here and makes a fantastic way to experience spring in Scotland. The trail, completed in 2020, is in fact the connection of existing walking routes the Great Glen Way and the South Loch Ness Trail. They combine into a full loop of the loch which takes about six days to walk, although cyclists and horse riders can make it round much faster. Sections can be picked off here and there depending on where you’re based and there’s some fairly tough climbing and terrain in certain parts, so choose wisely. The new trail adds an extra dimension to trips to the famous loch and tempts you to make a proper trip of it and take on the whole thing. With Inverness, recently voted one of the best places in the UK to live and work, as a hub for your hiking, you might never come home!

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Christopher Wilson-Elmes

Sawday's Expert

Chris is our in-house copywriter, with a flair for turning rough notes and travel tales into enticing articles. Raised in a tiny Wiltshire village, he was desperate to travel and has backpacked all over the world. Closer to home, he finds himself happiest in the most remote and rural places he can find, preferably with a host of animals to speak to, some waves to be smashed about in and the promise of a good pint somewhere in his future.

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