Sunrise and Sunset Times in United Kingdom

The United Kingdom lies between about 50°N and 61°N, so its seasons bring large swings in daylight. The whole country uses a single time zone: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter and British Summer Time (BST, one hour ahead) in summer. In 2026, BST runs from 29 March to 25 October.

Latitude makes a striking difference within that one zone. Around the June solstice, northern Scotland and the Shetland Islands see the sun set after 10 p.m., and the sky never becomes fully dark; the twilight known locally as the "simmer dim" lasts through the night. In midwinter the same places get only around six hours of daylight, while southern England gets close to eight. Because the UK spans several degrees of longitude, sunrise and sunset in western areas such as Northern Ireland and Cornwall are noticeably later than in the east of England.