Hiking the British Isles

When to hike the British Isles

From April to November, all 11 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. Not one of them does in December.

Averaged across the destinations, July is the warmest month at 15 degrees in the hiking window and January the coldest at 4.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 149 metres at Connemara to 703 metres at Cairngorms National Park, with a median of 353 metres. Connemara clears the criteria in 11 months (all year except December), Cairngorms National Park in 8 months (from April to November).

The longest season belongs to 7 destinations, including Peak District and Wicklow Mountains, at 11 months each; the shortest to Cairngorms National Park and Glencoe, at 8 months each.

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is short days for 9 of the 11 destinations and snow cover for 2.

In December, the quietest month, every destination is closed, 9 of them by short days.

Conditions in June

June is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 11 degrees at Cairngorms National Park to 15 at Kerry, and rain falls on 49 to 63 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 11 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.