There are two seasons in Scotland: June and Winter.

Billy Connolly (b. 1942), the Glasgow-born comedian and actor, has long drawn on Scottish life for observational humor—especially the country’s famously changeable, often cold and wet weather. This quip belongs to that tradition of Scottish self-deprecation: it compresses a common local complaint into a neat comic aphorism, implying that “summer” is so brief it barely counts as a season. The line is widely circulated in quotation collections and popular media as a Connolly one-liner about Scotland’s climate, though it is often repeated without a precise performance date or a reliably citable first publication.

The joke hinges on exaggeration: by reducing Scotland’s calendar to “June and Winter,” Connolly suggests that warmth and sunshine are rare, fleeting exceptions rather than the norm. Beyond weather, the line works as a compact piece of national character comedy—Scots are portrayed as hardy, accustomed to bleak conditions, and inclined to meet discomfort with wit. The humor also comes from the mock-official tone (“two seasons”) that mimics a factual statement while delivering an obviously biased, lived-experience verdict. Its popularity reflects how climate becomes a shared cultural reference point and a vehicle for affectionate regional identity.

1) “There are two seasons in Scotland: June and winter.”
2) “In Scotland there are only two seasons: June and winter.”
3) “Scotland has two seasons—June and winter.”