Clocks to change earlier in 2026 with 8pm sunsets to return

Finally some good news

The clocks will “spring forward” as we head towards summer, and in just a matter of weeks the evenings will get longer.

On Sunday, March 29, clocks will move forward by one hour at 1am.

This means that the official start of summer this year comes a day earlier than in 2025.

The clocks will then return to standard time on the last Sunday in October.

Certain parts of Ireland will experience sunsets beyond 8pm, including County Fermanagh, immediately after the clock change.

However, over in London, it will take nearly three weeks more before an after-8pm sunset arrives, as people living in the capital will have to wait until April 17.

According to forecasts, in Edinburgh the first post-8pm sunset is likely to occur around April 6.

While you will have to wait until April 10 if you live in Cardiff, or until April 12 if you’re from Birmingham.

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.

Germany was the first country to introduce daylight saving time in 1916, a year after Willett's death, and the UK followed swiftly, along with many other nations involved in the First World War.