Scotland in September?

I would prefer to go in Sept than in spring. I was there in March, and most of the trees were all bare. I’d rather see them leafed out or changing color. Maybe better weather in Sept also?

You can check actual, day-by-day, historical weather statistics on the website timeanddate.com. That will give you a good idea of the range of conditions you might experience. I like to check the most recent five years.

Edinburgh September 2022

Portree September 2022

Use the pull-down box to see other months/years and the search box to find other towns and cities. The western part of Scotland tends to be a bit wetter and a bit warmer than the east.

Weather is to some degree unpredictable. What is an absolute certainty is that you'll have much, much shorter days in September than in May. You can find climate-summary charts in the Wikipedia entries for most places of tourist interest. Those often include average monthly hours of sunshine. For Edinburgh that's 195 in May and only 130 in September. For Portree the difference is a shocking 196 hours in May and 98 in September (the impact of overcast weather in the west). Late September will be even darker than the monthly averages indicate.

However, you may be someone who's not bothered by lack of sunlight. It may have no impact on you unless you plan to take long hikes. A benefit to traveling in September is that in the west you're statically likely to have fewer rainy days and a lot less rain. (Wikipedia includes this data in its charts.)

Mainland Scotland and the Western Isles can often be very nice in September, weather wise. As others have said you have the benefits of the start of Autumn (fall) and most attractions are still open.
For ferries in September CalMac are still on their summer schedules. The Scottish Schools go back in mid August so everywhere is much quieter than then, especially ferries
I can't really think of a dis-benefit to going in September (the midges should have retired for the year by then as well), and as you say much lower air fares.

My favourite months of the year here on Skye are March, April, May and September. As others have said it's really an excellent time of year to come to Scotland and if you're travelling in the Highlands most restaurants and accommodations will stay open until mid October.

September is a great time to come. It isn't as busy as the summer months, and you still have reasonable hours of daylight. No-one can predict the weather in advance, but September is usually sunny, warm and dry(Ish!) Come in September and then plan another vist for May in 2024!

We were in Scotland the first couple of weeks last September and the weather was great. As I recall we only got real rain once, when we were in Oban, and it only lasted a couple of hours. Have a good waterproof jacket and waterproof shoes and you should be fine.

I was in Scotland in September for three weeks a few years ago. The weather was mixed, and I did get some level of rain about a third of the time, and one day at Hadrian’s wall when the rain was being blown horizontal by the wind. Take Gortex if you have it. Often the rain was more like a heavy mist and it just left everything damp all day. I would say there was only a couple days where I felt I was under dressed and a little cold, but that was due to poor planning. You definitely want layers so throw a light sweater in your backpack when you go out for the day.

It will change every year. When we were there last September we wore light jackets most days. We also got more rain than on previous trips. The weather didn’t stop us from doing the things we had planned.

Thank you everyone for the replies. All of that information is very helpful!