12 reasons autumn is the best time to visit the Scottish Highlands

Head north for autumnal foliage to rival New England, whisky tours, the Northern Lights – and no midges

New England is unrivalled for autumn colour, right? And it surely has to be Iceland for the Northern Lights? And, of course, it can only be Africa for a spirit-soaring wildlife safari? Wrong on all counts. The Scottish Highlands offer all of these charms and much more as one of the world’s most alluring – and seriously underrated – autumn holiday escapes.
The vast Highlands easily look their best as the leaves burn golden orange, smouldering red and shimmering yellow. When the summer hordes troop off from the hotspots, already planning a return next year, it seemingly doesn’t occur to them as they jet off overseas to catch jet lag that many of the autumnal experiences they seek lie just a short flight, rail ride or even just a relaxing overnight sleeper train away. 
Board the Caledonian Sleeper at London Euston (sleeper.scot; cabins for two from £465 return, including breakfast and use of the lounges) and wake in Inverness. 
In Scots there is a cosy version of the much-vaunted Scandinavian hygge. It’s “coorie”; the equivalent to getting cosy or snuggling. All this with cosy pubs and welcoming hotels to warm your soul. Even small cruise ships. This is a fantastic year for the Northern Lights, as we’re blessed with a high amount of solar activity, and this is also the year the island of Rum became Scotland’s first International Dark Sky Sanctuary. 
Here are 12 reasons you should choose Scotland for your autumn holiday…
Even in summer, Scotland offers good value given its world-class scenery and sweep of experiences, but in autumn the country is even more wallet-friendly. Air and train fares ease and links from the rest of the UK have never been better, so there is plenty of choice. And competition. Accommodation in all brackets offers special deals too as rates tumble, with the best deals available online. For example, the Torridon, the quintessential Highland retreat set in cow-kissed grounds on mountainous Loch Torridon (01445 791242; thetorridon.com), slashes its rates in autumn, with its cheapest (available at the time of writing) rooms as low as £335 by Friday October 25, including breakfast. 
The Highlands really do boast autumn colour just as spectacular as New England. Get stuck in with a proper wilderness hike around stag-ravaged Glen Affric, or wrap yourself in urban colour strolling in the Ness Islands on the bucolic fringes of Inverness, the only Highland city. 
For a real splurge, hop on the 40-guest small luxury cruise ship Lord of the Highlands (01756 704704; hebridean.co.uk). Savour an all-inclusive cruise through the forest-shrouded Great Glen from October 24-30 in a skirl of whisky, castles, bagpipes and fine food. Sip on a dram; they are generous with the lovely house Taittinger champagne, too. The Scottish Highlands on steroids. The “Lure of Loch Ness” costs from £3,490 per person.
This great wilderness is one of Europe’s least densely populated areas, but there are pressure points in summer, such as the Isle of Skye and the North Coast 500. These are much quieter in autumn, but if you really want to get away from it all, think outside the box. Swap Skye for its bijou sibling Eigg (isleofeigg.org) just to the south, an inspiring community-owned island with its welcoming hub, e-bikes and own record label, Lost Map Records. Instead of driving round the whole wildly popular North Coast 500 (northcoast500.com), stick to its most scenic part of Wester Ross and devote time to the smaller roads and wee escapes off the main artery.
What could be more life-affirming than a Highland hike on a crisp autumnal day? There are myriad options with Walk Highlands (walkhighlands.co.uk), a brilliant free resource. Don’t take the Highlands lightly even on a sunny day, as this is an elemental landscape that bowls from benign to brutal in seconds. Always take the right gear, plan and tell someone when you’re due back. The Munros (282 peaks over 3,000ft) are the most famous mountain challenges for the experienced, with the UK’s highest peak, 4,413ft-high Ben Nevis, a proper mountain challenge, especially in fading autumnal light. For a gentler walk, ease through a section of the 79-mile Great Glen Way (highland.gov.uk/greatglenway). You’re looking at at least a week to tackle the whole route.
The Highlands is serious whisky country, with Speyside the epicentre of the currently surging single malt industry. Famous global names abound, such as Glenfiddich (glenfiddich.com) and The Macallan (themacallan.com). Push further north to really escape the crowds this autumn at Glenmorangie (glenmorangie.com), a distillery that dares to be different under new owners Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
Stay at its fun and funky revamped Glenmorangie House (doubles from £330 per night, including breakfast) and sample its range of expressions with a private tasting, savour a menu alive with local produce, and finish cosying by the roaring fire with a dram. The next day, ramble around the coast to a hulking Pictish stone; in the afternoon they can run you to a distillery tour and tasting. 
Autumn is ideal for tastebud-tingling seasonal produce. The local mushrooms always stand out and the game rears its tasty and lower-cholesterol head on many menus. For takeaway and a stroll, how about a Highlands venison and cranberry pie from Lochinver Larder (lochinverlarder.com), with mail order if you want to relive the experience at home.
For a fine inn experience with a view of Skye, dine and stay at the legendary Applecross Inn (applecrossinn.co.uk), accessible via the highest road in Britain. Boat-fresh seafood is still in season. Doubles from £180 per night, including breakfast. For Michelin-starred dining, head to Michael Smith’s sublime Loch Bay (lochbay-restaurant.co.uk) in the cute wee village of Stein on Skye.
Highland Perthshire bursts alive with spectacular autumn colour by night too, with Pitlochry’s award-winning Enchanted Forest (enchantedforest.org.uk) from October 3 to November 3. This audiovisual spectacular brings Faskally Wood alive with lasers, curated music and churros. Local Eddie Thomson of Heartland Tours stresses that, “Pitlochry looks at its best in autumn and the Enchanted Forest plays a big part”. Stay overlooking Faskally Wood at the Fonab Castle Hotel & Spa (fonabcastlehotel.com). Dine on autumn delights at their three AA Rosette restaurants. Doubles from £336, including breakfast. The Loch and Land Festival in Inverness (visitinvernesslochness.com/loch-and-land-festival) celebrates its inaugural year from October 25 to November 3, shining light on what to do beyond summer, including myriad cobweb-bursting outdoor activities, from kayaking to whitewater sledging.  
The Highlands harbours those sorts of pubs you think only exist in old misty-eyed movies. Forget chains and think seriously, spirit-soaring coorie. Standing proudly in mountainous Glen Coe – that glen of James Bond Skyfall fame – since time immemorial is the Clachaig Inn (clachaig.com). Not content with one welcoming bar, they offer three. They’ve got 23 bedrooms too, with doubles from £188, including breakfast. Think fires, local ales, venison stew and towering mountain views. Just don’t ask for Campbells soup – history and hurt runs deep in this massacre-bloodied glen. A gaggle of walks tempt, from wee strolls around the nearby village of Glencoe, to some of Britain’s most challenging mountaineering.
Autumn, when the leaves fall, vegetation dies back and the stags wander down off the hills, is the best time to see wildlife. Head out on safari in search of Scotland’s own “big five” – red squirrels, otters, golden eagles, harbour seals and red deer, Britain’s largest land mammal. It sounds like there has been a Taggart-esque murder when the blood-curdling roar of the stags rutting echoes around the autumnal glens. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has a live red squirrel map (scottishsquirrels.org.uk). Rewilding is big news in Scotland – get involved on the Glen Nevis Estate on November 29 with 9 Principles of Rewilding (scotlandbigpicture.com; £80 per person).
The Highland skies are among the best places in the world to view night skies. The low ambient light and lack of pollution make marvelling at the heavens a life-affirming joy, like having your own free planetarium. We’re talking not just an epic galaxy (or rather galaxies) of stars, but satellites, shooting stars and meteors too. You’ll marvel at the aurora borealis on many nights during a Highland autumn – you can set up an alert on your phone so you don’t miss them (aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk). And then there is Rum, Scotland’s first International Dark Sky Sanctuary (isleofrum.com).
The remarkable quality of light during the day is not as renowned as the Highlands’ night skies, but it’s as spectacular in autumn. Mornings, with mists drifting slowly across the glens, bathing the landscape in romance, is a photographer’s dream. The weather forecasts that slap angry clouds over the Highlands in autumn don’t tell the whole story, as the light is ever-changing, the sun emerging from the low-slung skyline on a dreich day a poetic denouement before the gloaming, that dreamy time when the landscape is swathed in a peachy glow. Then man and our animal cousins await the spectacular colours of the sunset harbinger of another long, chill Highland night.
This might be the clincher for you if you’ve ever had a summer Highland holiday blighted by these baleful biting beasts. The great news is that culicoides impunctatus wafts off in autumn, leaving you bite-free, with nothing to suck your blood well before Hallowe’en. If you’re in any doubt, check out the “midge forecast”. Yes, seriously, there is one (smidgeup.com/midge-forecast). So confident are they that our insect interloper is gone that they’ve already paused their forecasts until spring.