Clocks go back 2026: How To Prepare for Darker Evenings

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026, when British Summer Time ends and the UK returns to Greenwich Mean Time. Overnight, sunset moves about an hour earlier by the clock: in London it drops from around 5:49pm on the Saturday to around 4:47pm on the Sunday.

The best way to prepare for darker evenings is to work out which of your routines will now happen in the dark, and to put the right light where you'll need it before the change rather than after it.

For most people, the first sign is the dog walk. The 5:30pm loop round the park that was in daylight the week before is suddenly a walk by street light, and the field at the far end is properly dark.

Just below, you can check how dark your own evenings will get this winter. I'll also cover what changes, how to get ready and the lights we'd recommend.

When do the clocks go back in 2026?

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026. At that point the time moves back to 1am, British Summer Time (BST) ends and the UK returns to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Phones update on their own. The oven, the car and the boiler timer usually don't.

The clocks go forward again at 1am on Sunday 28 March 2027, when BST starts and the evenings get their hour back. That gives us 154 days on GMT this winter.

Want to know how dark your own evenings will get? Pick your nearest town, what you're doing and when you usually head out, and the calculator below shows how many evenings this winter you'll be out after dark.

To give you an idea, a 5:30pm dog walk in London is in the dark on 102 of the 154 evenings between 25 October and 28 March, and moving it to 5pm still leaves 70. Location matters too: a 4:30pm walk never reaches full darkness in London, but in Lerwick it's dark on 66 evenings.

Why darker evenings catch people out

Your routine stays the same when the clocks change. The light doesn't. You leave work at the same time and the dog expects the same walk, so the first week after the change is when most people get caught out without a light.

Does the clock change make the days shorter?

No. It moves an hour of daylight from the evening to the morning on the clock. In London on Saturday 24 October, the sun rises at around 7:39am and sets at around 5:49pm. On the Sunday, it rises at around 6:41am and sets at around 4:47pm.

Sunset isn't the same as dark

After the sun goes below the horizon, there's still usable light while it sits less than six degrees below. This stage is called civil twilight. In London it lasts around 35 minutes in late October and around 40 minutes in December. Further north it lasts longer: in Inverness it's nearer 50 minutes in mid-December.

Our calculator counts "dark" from the end of civil twilight, the point where kerbs, potholes and tree roots disappear without a light. Under trees or heavy cloud it comes sooner, so a woodland path can be dark well before the lit street that leads to it.

The earliest sunset isn't on the shortest day

Most people assume the darkest evenings arrive on 21 December. They don't. Because of the tilt of the Earth's axis and the shape of its orbit, the earliest sunset falls about a week before the shortest day, and the latest sunrise about a week after it. In London, that's around 3:51pm on 13 December and around 8:06am on 1 January, so by Christmas the evenings are already getting lighter.

The further north and east you are, the earlier your evenings go dark:

How to prepare for the clocks going back

Most of this takes ten minutes, and it beats finding a flat head torch at 5:15pm on a Tuesday.

1. Charge everything on the Saturday. Lights that sat in a drawer all summer may well be flat. Do it when you change the clock in the car.
2. Put a light where the job happens. By the back door, on the hook with the dog lead, in the car and in your work bag. A torch in the kitchen drawer doesn't help at the end of the garden.
3. Check anything that runs on batteries. If a light takes AAA batteries, fit fresh ones now and keep a spare set with it.
4. Think about being seen as well as seeing. On unlit lanes, wear something reflective and give the dog a reflective or light-up collar.
5. Re-plan routes that rely on daylight. Swap the unlit riverside path for a lit route on weeknights, and plan winter hikes back from sunset, not from when you'd like to finish.
6. Have a plan for power cuts. Keep a lantern or torch where you can find it in the dark, not at the back of the cupboard under the stairs.

Which Ledlenser light suits your evening routine?

Nobody needs 2,000 lumens to walk to the station. The right light is the one that suits the job and is actually with you when it gets dark, so I'd start with what you're doing rather than the biggest number on the box.

Evening dog walks

For most dog walkers, I'd start with a head torch. Both hands stay free for the lead and the bags, and the light goes where you look, which matters when the dog has found something in the hedge before you have.

Torn between hands-free and handheld? Our guide Head Torch vs. Handheld Torch: Which Is Better for Evening Dog Walks? goes through both.

After-work runs

A street light shows you the pavement. It doesn't show you the raised paving slab ten metres ahead. For running, weight and stability matter more than raw output.

Running unlit trails or fells? Our running head torch guide covers the higher-output NEO models.

Winter walks and hikes

Winter daylight runs out faster than most route plans allow. A late start or a wrong turn on the fellside and you're finishing in the dark, so a charged head torch belongs in the pack.

For longer or more remote routes, the HF7R reaches up to 1,200 lumens and uses an Adaptive Light Beam.

Jobs around the house and the car

The bins, the shed, the car, the fuse box. Once it's dark by teatime, a proper torch by the back door saves a lot of fumbling.

Power cuts and winter storms

A torch finds the fuse box. For an evening without power, a lantern is far more useful than a beam pointed at the ceiling.

The walk home, the school run and the riverbank

For the walk home from work, a light small enough to live in a coat pocket beats a big torch you'll leave at home: see our Everyday Carry Lights. Our Kids Lights are sized for small hands and heads, anglers should look at our Fishing Head Torches, and our Professional Lights keep hands free for packing the van after dark.

Quick guide: which light for which evening?

Make the most of darker evenings

Darker evenings don't have to mean shorter dog walks or a cancelled midweek run. Know when it will actually get dark where you are, do the ten-minute check the weekend the clocks go back, and keep a charged light where you need it.