Are the seasons in Ireland different from those in Scotland, England, and Wales? Or are they just milder versions of each other?
07.06.2025 06:32
An all-weather jacket with a hood if you want to keep your head dry in a rain. The Irish don’t seem to mind running around in the rain without a hoodie or a hat. Try to get one that has a an easy-to-zip-in-and-zip-out lining.
Winters in Ireland are rainy and cool but rain doesn’t stop anybody from having the most wonderful time while in Ireland. If you’re feeling chilled or damp from anything from a heavy mist to a drizzle or a downpour, know that when you enter a pub, a restaurant or a hotel lobby, you’re going to be met by warm smiles and a grand welcome along with a roaring fireplace which just may be burning peat from a bog somewhere in Ireland. So you’ll step into that lovely aroma of a peat fire. . . and you can buy little peat incense squares packaged in a cute little cardboard box that has a thatched cottage printed on the outside so when you get home you can light the incense and take a deep whiff of Ireland at home!
A telescoping umbrella that collapses down to nothing and is light weight and easy to tote around. Like the Irish, you may not use your umbrella every time the drops or mist appear because, if the rain is accompanied by wind, your umbrella will be useless.
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We were also in Ireland on February 28, 2020 when The Beast From the East, a snowstorm that originated in Russia, swept across Europe and hit Ireland. They got 10 inches of snow in County Wicklow on the east coast and trucks spun out of control and lodged across two-land country roads, making it impossible for traffic to pass. Worse than that, the general driving public in Ireland doesn’t know how to drive in snow. Their cars don’t have snow tires and, where you’d need chains to navigate through places like Sally Gap or the mountains in Joyce Country, they are just unequipped and downright panicked about driving in snow.
The jet stream brings the winds from the west eastward and much of the weather the Ireland experiences is not only felt in the UK mainland but also in places like Paris. It always makes me laugh when the Irish bemoan the rains when places like Paris get more than their fair share of rain. (Woody Allen made a film, Midnight in Paris, which is, essentially, a love letter to Paris and in that film rain is a character of its own!). The differences in the temperature and whether rain becomes sleet or snow is, in general, a factor of what elevation you are at. So, in Scotland, up in the Highlands, you’ll get colder winters with snow and ice where in Ireland, in most locations, the weather will be milder.
WATERPROOF SHOES OR RAIN BOOTS that don’t weigh a zillion pounds and are comfortable to walk in with a slip-proof sole. If your waterproof footwear is heavy, WEAR IT ON YOUR FLIGHTS BECAUSE THEY’LL TAKE UP TOO MUCH OF YOUR LUGGAGE SPACE AND WEIGHT ALLOWANCE.
I’m assuming, and you know how dangerous that can be(!), that you’re asking this because, just maybe, you’re thinking of going to any or all of these destinations and that’s why you’re interested in knowing what the climate is like. . . unless you are thinking about living in one of these places. . . in which case the comments below will help you to deal with weather conditions.
I have been in Ireland during the Shannon River floods, driving through the snow covered mountains/hilltops in County Donegal, where you’ll find that highest cliffs in western Europe, twice as high as the Cliffs of Moher that are about 750′ high as compared to Slieve League cliffs that are about 1500′ high. and while it’s warmer at the lower elevations and probably around 45 degree Fahrenheit, or a bit more, the roads are snow-covered and it’s a whole lot colder in those hills.
I have been in Ireland during every month of the year. I have lived most of my life in the northeast of the US where winters can be harsh and no flowers will bloom until May after a stark winter of bleakness. So it is always a welcome sight to arrive in Ireland in January or February and drive past people’s homes where they have tulips and daffodils. . . also called jonquils in the Mid-Atlantic states in the US. . . in full bloom and driving past gardens along the Irish coastline where folks have a palm tree or two growing in their garden! You’ll also find amazing gardens on the norther coastline of Scotland where tropical plants bloom at Inverewe Garden (yes it’s “Inverewe” not Inverurie!) in the north west Highlands. It’s the Gulf Stream circulating around the island that is Ireland and around Scotland and the UK that keeps the places livable. If not for the Gulf Stream, Ireland would be iced over like Greenland.
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Generally, in Ireland, you’ll look up and see a thick layer of clouds overhead in the winter. . . and sometimes in the summer, too. When the sun rises, you’ll have bright sunlight until about 11am when the sun slides higher into the sky and passes through the thick layer of clouds so it suddenly becomes a gray and bleak day. Now, if you were in a country where the people appear to be dour and sour, even though they may be quite happy but that’s not what their face is telling you, you won’t have that experience in Ireland because the Irish manage to light up a room just by being there.
Turtleneck shirts! A godsend! . . .over which you’ll want to have a sweater that the Irish would call a “pullover.” Cardigan sweaters that button up the front are easier for women as they won’t mess up your hair! You can put on the turtleneck, tie the sweater around your neck in a square knot so it stays in place under your jacket. With the turtleneck, sweater and jacket, you’ll be able to find the exact combination to be comfortable as it gets warmer, colder, damper or whatever.
While this was an unusual and extraordinary weather occurrence, our packing regimen was in order, the next year when we arrived in Ireland on February 27, 2020 with corduroy slacks, turtlenecks, sweaters and waterproof non-slip footwear, hats, gloves and waterproof all-weather jacketsi expecting to fly home on March 18th. Again, we were in Kinsale, this time on March 15, 2020 when we got the news that the airports were closing on March 16th and most hotel and many restaurants began to close the same day. Covid was upon us! But, even with that planning for this trip, what we didn’t anticipate that we wouldn’t get home until July 20, 2020 as that was the first date we could get a flight home. And we stayed from the night of March 16th until July 4, 2020 in the same house in Cairncastle that we stayed at for 5 nights in 2019 where we outlived the Beast from the East that year with the snowline running northward from County Cork and County Waterford to Belfast, about 20 minutes drive south of Larne. We lived the last 2 weeks we were in Lockdown. . .also referred to as “loughdown” in a fabulous model house used to show the possibilities of what a local contractor could build into a dream home, arranged for us as a gift-of-love by the fabulous former athlete and former Irish political leader, TD (the equivalent of a senator) and Minister of Tourism, Sports, Irish culture and other ministerial assignments, Jimmy Deenihan. We certainly didn’t have any idea that our three-week trip would turn into five (5) months! And when we started to melt wearing winter clothes in May, I had to order a wardrobe of spring/summer clothes from Marks & Spencer which, happily, were delivered to the house where we lived for 4 months! Imagine getting locked down, having five (5) months of car rental contracts back-to-back and everything else that goes into a three week trip becoming a five-mon
We were in Kinsale, in County Cork the night Feb 28, 2019,. When we went to dinner to meet up with the wonderful Martin Shanahan who owns the marvelous restaurant, “Fishy-Fishy,” on the waterfront, there was no snow on the ground. When we came out of the restaurant at about 10pm, there were about 3 inches of snow on the ground and we were engulfed in a blizzard. Episode 10 of my TV Show, “Travel TV WITH Stephanie Abrams” called, “Kudos to Kinsale,” documents that experience! The rental car didn’t come with an ice scraper which one would get in the US with any northern car rental during fall/winter months. The morning desk clerk came out with a shovel. . .or maybe it was a broom. . .and swept our windshield clean from the very wet and heavy snow. We drove from Kinsale to Cairngorm, just north of Larne in Northern Ireland that day, a six-hour drive, and there wasn’t much accumulation on the motorway but the Irish were inching along in fear of the driving conditions which would be seen as no problem in the northeast of the US.
For someone who lives in one of the New England states in the US, or in New York State of New Jersey, you’ll find Ireland a day at the beach in the winter! And if you get lucky, you’ll fall into a streak of warm and sunny days, contrary to popular opinion that it rains there all the time. The weather in Ireland is frequently much the same as the weather in Wales as only the Irish Sea separates the two countries. In 2010, Irish Ferries stopped service to Wales for 24 hours and the Ryder Cup, being played in Wales, was cancelled for a period of time. . . all of this due to high winds, high seas and rain. So Ireland and the UK very much share the same weather but elevation above sea level of specific locations will have an impact on actual conditions.
So if you’re traveling to Ireland between November and mid-March, you’ll want to pack with layers (which you might want to do for any month of the year) and I recommend the following:
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