Your last spring frost is the most useful date in the growing year. Plant out before it and a cold night can undo months of work. But the frost dates handed round for Scotland are often wrong, because they track postcode areas when Scottish frost actually tracks altitude and distance from the sea. Every figure below comes from a named Met Office station, split into lowland and upland where the ground demands it.
Inverness is milder than Edinburgh
The old rule says the Highlands are coldest. The Met Office record says otherwise: Inverness averages about 38 air-frost days a year and just 0.14 in May. It is the mildest mainland station we examined, milder than Edinburgh's roughly 43. Cold air drains off the hills and the sea keeps the coast mild, so a lowland Highland garden can start weeks earlier than a gardener following "wait until June up north" would ever dare.
The mirror image also holds. The Southwest (Dumfries) is often called Scotland's earliest region, yet it records more April air frost than Edinburgh or Inverness. It is mild in autumn, not early in spring. The real latest frosts are at altitude: Braemar, Eskdalemuir, wherever they sit on the map.
Sources: Met Office station records
Frost dates for every region
Dates are half-month bands, because the Met Office publishes monthly counts of air-frost days, not observed frost dates. Single-day precision would be false. Season length is approximate.
| Region | Garden | Last spring frost | First autumn frost | Safe to plant out | Season | Station | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Belt | lowland | mid-to-late April | late October | mid May | ~185 days | Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden No 2 | high |
| Central Belt | upland | mid-to-late May | late September | early June | ~130 days | Eskdalemuir | low |
| Northeast | lowland | early May | late October | late May | ~175 days | Dyce (Aberdeen) | high |
| Northeast | upland | late May to early June | mid-to-late September | mid June | ~115 days | Braemar | high |
| Highlands | lowland | late April | late October | mid May | ~180 days | Inverness | high |
| Highlands | upland | late May to early June | mid-to-late September | mid June | ~115 days | Braemar | medium |
| Southwest | lowland | late April | late October | mid May | ~180 days | Dumfries, Crichton Royal No 2 | high |
| Southwest | upland | mid-to-late May | late September | early June | ~130 days | Eskdalemuir | high |
| Borders | lowland | early May | late October | mid-to-late May | ~175 days | Charterhall | high |
| Borders | upland | mid-to-late May | late September | early June | ~130 days | Eskdalemuir | medium |
| Islands | lowland | late April | early November | mid May | ~190 days | Stornoway | high |
Sources: Met Office · Met Office
How these dates were worked out
The Met Office does not publish "last frost" dates. It publishes the average number of air-frost days per month at each station. We treat a month as carrying meaningful frost risk when it averages at least half an air-frost day, take the last such month in spring and the first in autumn, and express each as a half-month band. Safe planting-out adds roughly two weeks beyond the last frost, the standard horticultural margin. Where no station represents a region's high ground, the nearest analogue is used and flagged with lower confidence. Central Belt upland, for instance, borrows Eskdalemuir and is marked low because Eskdalemuir is in Dumfriesshire, not the Central Belt.
Local frost varies sharply over short distances. Met Office: 'those places into which cold air can drain are particularly prone to frost', and frost pockets can run 2-4 weeks later in spring than ground metres away. These are regional averages, not garden-specific predictions.
Add your own frost dates
These are regional averages. Your garden has its own microclimate: a frost pocket, a warm wall, a windy ridge. Pooling real observations makes the picture sharper for everyone. Share yours below. We only ask for the first part of your postcode (like EH10), never the full one.
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Sources
- Met Office: location-specific long-term averages: the 1991-2020 air-frost day counts behind every region row, including the Inverness/Edinburgh comparison
- Derivation method: GrowScotland's own. We treat a month as carrying meaningful frost risk when it averages at least half an air-frost day, take the last such month in spring and the first in autumn, and express each as a half-month band. This is described in full above.