People further north will benefit from the change sooner than those down south
With March in full swing and astronomical spring only a few days away, many Brits will be pleased to put the wet and cold winter behind them. Soon enough, people across the country will be able to stay out longer and enjoy lighter evenings as the clocks ‘spring forward’ an hour at the end of the month.
In 2026, the sun will begin to set after 9pm in the UK starting from late May, and this will last until around mid-to-late July. In London, the first sunset at 9pm is predicted to happen on May 26 – which is around 11 weeks away.
The last sunset of the year will happen around June 24 or June 25. This year, there will be about 60 sunsets that happen at or after 9pm. By late July, sunsets will start to be before 9pm again.
In places further north, like Scotland, the 9pm sunset will occur earlier in May. The last 9pm sunset of 2026 is expected to be around the start of August.
In Northern Ireland and north Scotland, some areas will experience sunsets after 8pm immediately following the clock change on March 29. In Edinburgh, 8pm sunsets are expected around April 6, around April 10 for Cardiff, April 12 for Birmingham and April 17 in London.
After the ‘spring forward’ clock change on March 29, sunset times will get better quickly. In general, sunsets will reach 8.30pm by mid-April and 9pm by the end of April or early May.
The clocks in the UK will move ahead by one hour at 1am on Sunday, March 29, marking the start of British Summer Time (BST). This yearly “spring forward” happens on the last Sunday of March to make the most of daylight in the warmer months, giving us longer, brighter evenings and shorter mornings.
They’ll go back one hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October. When the clocks go back, the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The main reason is to use natural sunlight more effectively, which gives us more daylight in the evening. It was first introduced in the UK in 1916 (during World War I) through the Summer Time Act, aiming to save fuel for war efforts and boost worker productivity.
Builder William Willett was inspired by the idea of not ‘wasting daylight’. He pushed for this change so that people could take advantage of the early morning light during summer.
The UK isn’t the only place that moves its clocks ahead in spring. About 70 countries do this, including most of Europe (but not Russia, Belarus, Iceland, and Turkey), most of North America, and some areas in Australia, which all use daylight saving time.
