Edinburgh-Glasgow-Lanark
 

We are planning to take 2 weeks to explore Scotland in summer 2008. My husband's grandfather was from Lanarkshire so that is an important destination. While we'd love to be in Edinburgh in August for the festival, we have been told that June is far nicer weather and no "midges" (we call them gnats here in US)to plague our walks. Any and all opinions welcome! We'd also like to visit Ione and/or Skye, so would June be preferable to August?

Whereabout's in Lanarkshire (I'm being nosey as My Mumm is from Lanarkshire - she's from near Larkhall, and half my family still live there). It's not exactly touristy.....

I'm not sure. His last name was Herdman, and he came from a huge family. I do have a lot of genealogical information, but no geographical other than Lanarkshire.

Do you know what he did as a job? That would help track it down.

Edinburgh during Festival time is excellent if you wish to attend Festival events / shows / Military Tattoo etc but can be chaotic with the population of Edinburgh doubling during these three August weeks.
I would suggest your other option of June. June is a more pleasant time and there are not nearly as many visitors. This makes attractions and popular places to visit easier to access and you will have more time to see them properly. You will generally find that people are more friendly in June as they do not have to deal with large crowds.
June is probably a better time to visit Skye as it will not be too busy on the single track roads. The weather could be the same in June or August as we could still have changeable weather at anytime.
Whilst Edinburgh does not have the dreaded midge, I would agree that there will be fewer midges in June especially if you intend walking in the more remote / wetter areas on Skye.

I've been to Edinburgh twice - once in June and once in August. June was last year - I wore Under Armour under my jeans every day, gloves, coat and did some mandatory shopping for cashmere scarves - IT WAS COLD. When my husband and I were there several years ago in August - it was chilly, but we needed only a light jacket and pants. We did the Orkey Islands and that was cool.

What on Earth is "Under Armour"? It sounds like a deodorant :-)

It's very thin but warm long underwear :)
I'm from Minnesota and I froze my buns off in Scotland on a couple of days!!

Thanks, meks, for the information. June is looking to be the favorite.

You'll have a TON of daylight in June, which will be great for touring around. It may be cooler in June, but we've worn long undies and fleece jackets in August also. We live in hot humid Atlanta, though, so any time I can wear a fleece in the summer I consider it delightful.

You never can tell with the weather, here I am in Ohio with snow out my front door.

When I was there in June (03) it was very mild, sunny, and upper 60s/lower 70s. I'd say just go prepared (layering is key!). I've never been in August, but the rates and the crowds have put me off from that. I would like to go for the festival one day, but the airfare and hotel rates really just weren't possible for this year. We are going June 14th :).

I've always been surprised by the weather when we travel. We were in England in August of 1997 (or 8?). When we left Boston it had been over 90 degrees for a couple of weeks--just awful, sweltering humidity. While we were in London there was mass hysteria over their "heat wave"--it got to 80 degrees for 3 days and it was front page news for the whole time we were there. One year we baked in the heat in southwest Ireland in early June; on another trip in August to the same area we froze during a cold, rainy week.