Scotland and Ireland in 14 Days?

Scotland and Ireland are a good combination. Look for open jaw (multi-city) and fly into Dublin and out from Edinburgh. Use a discount European airline for the 1-hour flight from Dublin to Glasgow or Edinburgh. Students in Scotland go back to school in late August - so September will be less crowded but I would pick the first two weeks as the weather is a factor the further North you are on the British Isles. Early September will mean about 13-14 hours of daylight. I personally enjoy Scotland in the summer months (late June/early July) for the chance of good weather and 17-18 hours of daylight. It is still somewhat light at 11:00 pm during these months. You don't say if you will rent a car. There are many castles in both Scotland and Ireland, but I think Scotland has the edge. Lots of history and hiking in both, you really can't go wrong.

Thanks for the kind reply. We will definitely rent a vehicle. So question - only reason I'm avoiding summer is crowds. If we do June will it be less crowded? Perhaps it's not like Italy or the places that were jammed last summer? We did run out of daylight during our Oct trip to England and got lucky w good weather

Have you dug into guidebooks yet? If I had 14 days I wouldn't split them between Ireland Scotland. I'd choose one country. I know a flight from Ireland to Scotland doesn't require much air time, but you still have all the airport time, and you'll have a car to drop off and a car to pick up on the other end. All told, that short flight is going to chew up more than half a day by the time you get settled in your new hotel.

I haven't been to Ireland, but Scotland has lots of lovely country with highlights rather scattered. Driving isn't typically very fast. You can't do a great deal in Scotland with only 7 days or so.

Regarding the timing of your trip: while the crowds at some of the more popular destinations can be daunting in June, it isn't as if the whole country is overrun. Frankly, the prospect of better weather and increased hours of daylight in June (sunrise around 4:45 AM) will outweigh any of those concerns if you're up early and on the road before the tour buses start to roll around 9:30. With that early start you'll have most of the popular places (Dingle, the ROK, Glendalough, etc.) all to yourselves, can enjoy them at your leisure, and then take to the road to explore some of the more rural areas that make Ireland truly unique. Point being that given a choice between visiting in June or September our preference has always been June.
I agree with acraven that concentrating on one country or the other is the preferred strategy with only two weeks of discretionary time available.
If you're as hard-charging as you appear to be you'll be able to cover a lot of ground in those two weeks. You really don't want to waste most of one day relocating from one place to the other.
Also, while booking an open jaw is usually good advice, you'd have to connect somewhere getting to or returning from Edinburgh which rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise. Better (IMO) to book one of the direct flights into Dublin.
If you're interested in off the beaten path explorations I suggest taking a look at "Backroads Ireland" by DK publishing. It describes numerous scenic drives around the country where I guarantee you'll be the only tourists within miles. Can usually find cheap used copies on Amazon for just a few dollars.

Edited to add: for hiking in Ireland we've always had good luck with the AllTrails.com website, and I see that they now have an App for your smart phone. We've found their descriptions of the various hikes around the country to be most helpful, and their user ratings are always spot-on in helping us sort out the various options in each area.
Also, since someone else mentioned the Spring midges in Scotland, we've never noticed a problem with bugs while hiking during the Spring and Summer around Ireland.

I have been to both countries twice and agree with acraven that it is better to focus on one at a time. They both offer so much to see and do and are so individually different. Does your 14 days include travel days? I would suggest flying into Shannon in Ireland which is a smaller airport than Dublin. You can rent a car there and avoid city driving while you acclimate, and still be close to major destinations.

Scotland won't be jammed during June or early July. Getting up early and avoiding the bus tours is a good plan. We even arrived at some locations, towards the end of the day and had a much better experience. The only time we ran into Disney-style crowds was at Edinburgh Castle, but it was a Saturday and several cruises were in port. That was bad planning on my part. I agree, 14 days is better for one country, but if you really want to do Ireland as well, just know that one day will be spent traveling through airports. (No matter how short the flight is, it takes a day out of your plan). You can do both if you are willing to sacrifice a day in an airport and standing at another rental car counter and dealing with Ryan Air (which is not a problem - if you follow the Strick rules for carry-on - I would check your US size carryons).

Margaret

For reference I've done Rick's 14 day tours of both Scotland and Ireland. I felt like we didn't even get to the highlights in 2 weeks in each country so I'd vote for keeping it to one country. His tour format is usually 2 nights in each location and really sometimes I wanted 3 or more!

Drive times are very slow in both locations especially if you are going to include any of the island locations in Scotland.

Now to pick one, lol!!

Another reason to avoid summer (at least in Scotland) would be the midges, which come out in late May, I believe, and hang around through late summer to early fall, although it's my understanding they are mostly in the western Highlands.

And here's another vote for limiting your trip to one country. I'm planning a 3-week trip to Scotland next year and briefly thought about adding in Ireland, but was convinced otherwise and I'm glad I listened. Even with 3 weeks, there is so much more I would love to see in Scotland, and I would feel very deprived if I only had one week in each country (actually less since you will lose a day on the transfer between countries).

I have been to both countries a couple of times, however, we did it on cruises and spent only a little less than a week in each. You should consider doing one country.

We did four weeks in England (no visit to London) and S. Wales in 2017 renting a car and it was great, but we would have missed so much if we had added Scotland to that.

For example, if you do Ireland, you need minimum of two days in Dublin, then two more in Belfast. Galway and the Ring of Kerry, with the rest of the south, you need a week.

Check out Rabbies tours
https://www.rabbies.com/en/ireland-tours#seetours
The one that does it well enough for the entire island is an 11 day tour.

I’ll pile on with the others and recommend sticking to one country. In late September it’s dark by 7pm in Scotland. We’ve been to Scotland twice for five weeks and have not made it to a number of places. You’ll have fun no matter what you decide.

I've done both Scotland and Ireland in Septembers in the past, albeit different trips for each country. We spent a week with each trip and felt like we did decent amounts of each. Chose September to avoid busier summer holidays and it was less $, but with both trips we did have colder, dreary weather on many of the days. I am in WI so it doesn't bother me, but if weather is something you are fussier about, then September might not be the greatest time.

We went to Ireland in September and it was warm and sunny every day. You just never know for sure, but since September is nice in much of Europe, I think it’s a good month to go.