British Summer Time will begin in a number of weeks
12:08, 18 Jan 2026Updated 08:17, 19 Jan 2026
In just a matter of weeks, the clocks will ‘spring forward’, signalling the start of longer, lighter evenings as we head towards summer. After what has felt like a long winter already for many, countless people are looking forward to the extra daylight hours.
Across the UK, clocks will move forward by one hour at 1am on Sunday, March 29, a day earlier than in 2025, marking the official start of British Summer Time (BST). They will then return to standard time on the last Sunday in October.
Immediately after the clock change, certain parts of the UK will experience sunsets beyond 8pm, including County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. For London, however, it will take approximately another 17 days, until April 17, before an after-8pm sunset arrives.
The clocks will ‘spring forward'(Image: Marco Bottigelli via Getty Images)
In Edinburgh the first post-8pm sunset is likely to occur around April 6, April 10 for Cardiff, and Birmingham approximately April 12, according to forecasts.
Why do the clocks go forward in the UK?
The tradition of beginning BST by advancing the clocks in spring was first established in 1916. The original idea of maximising daylight hours was initially proposed by American inventor Benjamin Franklin in 1784 and subsequently examined in a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight” by British writer William Willett in 1907.
In 1916, a year after Willett’s death, Germany became the first country to introduce daylight saving time. The UK swiftly followed, along with many other nations involved in the First World War (1914-1918), according to the Royal Museums Greenwich.