Summer Team Building: Making the Most of the Season

What Scottish summer actually gives teams (and why it matters)

There are three things about summer in Scotland that change what’s possible for a corporate event, and most planning briefs don’t take any of them seriously enough.

1. The light

Sunsets in June and July run past ten in the evening, with proper twilight for an hour or two afterwards. You can run a full day of outdoor activity and roll straight into an evening event without anyone reaching for a head torch. 

This is genuinely unusual in a UK context, and it completely changes the shape of what a “day” can look like.

2. The scenery

From the Pentlands of Edinburgh to the lochs of the Trossachs to the coastal stretches around Fife and East Lothian, the backdrop is already doing half the work before anyone’s arrived. You don’t need elaborate theming when the venue itself is the moment. Most of the photos that end up on your company LinkedIn afterwards are going to be of the view, not the catering.

3. The climate

Mild enough to actually be outside all day without anyone overheating, which is no small thing if you’ve ever tried to run a summer event in central London in late July. People can wear what they want, move around comfortably, and still feel okay at five in the afternoon.

None of these are flashy advantages. 

But for an event planner, they’re worth more than half the things people typically agonise over.

Why outdoor beats indoor (when the season’s with you)

For a lot of the year in Scotland, you’re stuck to indoors. In summer, you can plan outdoors.

In the case of outdoor team building specifically, people are more relaxed in fresh air, energy levels stay higher, conversations flow more naturally, and the physical space takes the formality out of the day before anyone’s even said a word. 

Office dynamics that feel rigid in a meeting room dissolve a bit when everyone’s touching grass.

Yes, the weather can still surprise you. This is Scotland. We’d be lying if we said otherwise. 

But the honest pro tip is this: book outdoor with a proper contingency, rather than booking indoor by default and missing the season altogether. 

In our experience, most events get the day they hoped for, and the contingency rarely gets used. The ones that don’t get a sunny day usually still get a serviceable one, and the team adapts. 

We’ve never had a Scottish summer event ruined by rain. Not once.

The summer team-building formats that make the most of it

Not every team-building activity is built for the outdoors, and not every outdoor activity makes proper use of what Scottish summer offers. 

Three formats genuinely do.

GPS treasure hunts

This is the format that gets people out of the room and into a city, a town, or a country estate, exploring places they’d never otherwise visit and solving problems against the clock. It’s one of our flagship products for a reason. Teams walking, talking, laughing, and seeing somewhere new in the best possible light. Hard to beat.

Our GPS Treasure Hunts run across Scottish cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St Andrews, and across country estates and even bespoke routes built the way you want. 

Each team gets an iPad, the route updates live, and the leaderboard keeps the competition honest. Done well, you don’t notice the tech.

You just notice that three hours have passed and your colleague from finance has somehow ended up knowing more about local history than anyone expected.

Why does this format work particularly well in summer? You need:

• Daylight
• People who are happy to be outside for two or three hours
• A backdrop that rewards looking up from the screen. 

Scottish summer ticks all three boxes harder than any other time of year.

Highland Games and outdoor team competitions

The traditional outdoor format Scotland is famous for, and a particularly good fit for international visitors or teams gathering from multiple offices.

The works so well because of the mix Highland Games gives you: 

• Individual challenges where one person steps up and gives it a go
• Team rounds where you sink or swim together
• A closing celebration that brings the whole group back into one space

There are plenty of other outdoor competition formats that come into their own in summer too. 

School Races, Pole Position, archery, axe throwing, or our traditional country pursuits. 

The principle is the same in all cases. 

These activities look and feel their best when their sun is shining. Don’t waste them on a wet Tuesday in November when summer is right there.

Long-evening socials and outdoor dining

This is where Scottish summer genuinely pulls ahead of anywhere else in the UK.

The light makes the evening event a completely different proposition. 

Outdoor team dinners, ceilidhs, garden socials, fire-pit gatherings, drinks receptions on a terrace at half past nine when the sun is still flirting with the horizon. 

None of this works in October. All of it works in June-August.

The bit organisers most often underestimate is the value of the transition. A great summer event isn’t usually one big thing. It’s a day of structured activity that flows naturally into a relaxed evening, with no awkward gap, no hotel-lobby waiting around, no losing half your group between sessions. 

The pacing matters as much as the content, and getting it right is the difference between a nice day out and an event people are still talking about in six months time.

Turning a summer outing into genuine team connection

Most summer socials are nice. Some are memorable. 

The gap between the two has almost nothing to do with budget and almost everything to do with how the day is built.

A few things we’d suggest:

Build in unstructured time

The conversations that actually matter rarely happen during the structured activity. They happen on the walk between treasure hunt stations, over the second drink at dinner, on the bus back. Don’t engineer those moments out of the day by packing the schedule too tight.

Mix the team up deliberately

Don’t let people self-select into their usual groups. The whole point of an away day is that it puts people next to colleagues they’d never normally sit beside. The best teams come back with at least one new genuine connection between people who didn’t really know each other on the way out.

Pick one focal point, not five

The events that land hardest tend to have a single anchor (a GPS hunt, a Highland Games, an outdoor dinner) that the rest of the day flows around. The packed itineraries that try to cram in three activities and a guest speaker tend to leave everyone exhausted and remembering none of it.

None of this is complicated. It’s just deliberate.

Planning notes for your Scottish Summer Team Building Event

Here are a few of our top tips on how to make the most of your summer team day out in Scotland.

When to book

Summer dates go fast. Friday and weekend slots in July and August get snapped up early.

If you have specific venue or activity requests, then the more time we have in advance of the event, the better. Some events can be turned around quickly, though, if needed, so give the team a shout with your requirements, and we’ll see what we can do.

The weather contingency question

When you’re talking to any supplier (us included), the answer to “what happens if the forecast turns?” should be specific, not vague. 

“We’ll figure it out on the day” isn’t a contingency.

A proper backup is a named indoor adaptation, with a clear sense of how the day reshapes itself if you have to switch.

Group size and venue

Scottish summer suits both large and small groups, but the venue matters more outdoors than indoors. 

Different parts of the country open up different options, and getting the venue right early makes everything else easier. 

Talk to someone who knows the regional landscape before locking anything in. That’s a conversation worth having, whether it’s with us or someone else.

If you’re thinking about a summer team event and want to make proper use of the season, we’d love to hear what you’re planning. 

Tell us about your team, the kind of day you’re picturing, and we’ll come back with some ideas that fit. Summer in Scotland is genuinely our favourite time of year to run events, and we don’t mind saying so.

Get in touch.

FAQ’s

What are the best summer team building activities in Scotland? 

GPS treasure hunts, Highland Games, outdoor competitions, and evening-led socials all play to what Scottish summer offers best. The right one for your team depends on group size, energy, and what you want the day to deliver.

When should we book a summer team building event? 

It really depends on your event requirements. For specific venue and activity requests, the more time we have, the better, but some activities can be arranged relatively quickly. Get in touch with the team with your requirements and we can give you a detailed timeline.

What happens if the weather turns on the day? 

We know only too well how quickly the Scottish weather can turn! We’ll make sure to discuss contingency plans with you when organising your event so we can make sure a backup plan is in place. Mind you, some of the most memorable Highland Games we’ve organised have seen teams enjoying themselves in Scottish showers!

Can summer team building events be run for large groups? 

Absolutely. The formats we run at Maximillion scale comfortably from small teams to several hundred. Larger groups tend to work in rotations across multiple stations or zones, which keeps the energy up.

Do you need to be based in Scotland to book a Scottish summer team event?

Not at all. A significant chunk of the teams we host travel up from elsewhere in the UK or further afield. Events such as Highland Gmes and GPS Treasure Hunts are great ways to give international guests a proper taste of Scotland. We can help with the logistics around getting groups to a venue, and the Scottish summer is genuinely one of the best reasons to make the trip.