UK clocks go back earlier in 2026 — exact date confirmed

UK clocks go back earlier in 2026 — exact date confirmed The clocks will go back an hour at the end of October, marking the end of British Summer Time and the start of Greenwich Mean Time The scorching summer is behind us — and those long, dark winter evenings are closing in fast. Dusk is already falling noticeably earlier, and temperatures are set to plummet. The arrival of autumn will also bring the end of daylight saving time, which rarely goes down well across the UK. Those early sunsets mean workers can miss almost all of the day's natural light. On the bright side, there will at least be an extra hour in bed when the clocks change. And that date will come around sooner this year than it did in 2025. While the clocks went back on Sunday, October 26, last year, in 2026 they will turn back an hour at 2am on Sunday, October 25, marking the end of daylight saving time, reports the Express. A handy way to remember which way the clocks will go is the well-known phrase: "spring forward, fall back". Most modern devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, will update automatically at 2am on Sunday, rolling back to 1am. Older, traditional clocks, however, will need to be adjusted by hand. The tradition of changing the clocks was introduced to make the most of natural daylight hours. It means mornings will be brighter, gaining an extra hour of daylight — but it also means darkness will fall much earlier in the evenings. According to timeanddate.com, sunset today (October 14) takes place at 6:12pm in London. However, the days will gradually shorten, with sunset dropping to 6.03pm by Sunday, October 20, before falling further to 4:46pm on Sunday, October 25 — the day the clocks go back. Looking forward, clocks will spring forward next year on Sunday, March 28, 2027, and return on October, 2027. This marks the latest possible date the clocks could go back in any given year.