UK Bank Holidays 2027: Dates, Long Weekends & What's Open

If you are planning time off in 2027, UK bank holidays 2027 give England and Wales eight guaranteed days off — and with the right single day of leave, several of them stretch into four-day breaks.

This guide lists every England and Wales bank holiday for 2027, explains the substitute-day rule, and shows which long weekends are worth booking early.

All UK bank holidays in 2027

These are the bank holidays for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own calendars, which we cover further down, so check locally if you are outside England and Wales.

Most bank holidays land on a Monday, which is what makes them so useful for a short break. The two exceptions each year are Good Friday and, at the end of December, Christmas and Boxing Day.

What each bank holiday marks

New Year's Day opens the year on 1 January. Good Friday and Easter Monday sit either side of the Easter weekend; because Easter is tied to the lunar calendar, these are the only bank holidays whose dates move significantly from year to year.

The Early May Bank Holiday, on the first Monday of May, has marked workers and labour since 1978. The Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday of May and the Summer Bank Holiday on the last Monday of August are the two warm-weather long weekends that most families build a trip around.

The year closes with Christmas Day on 25 December and Boxing Day on 26 December. When either lands on a weekend, the day off moves, which is covered next.

The substitute-day rule

England and Wales never lose a bank holiday to the weekend. When Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, a substitute bank holiday is moved to the next available weekday.

That is why you sometimes see the day off land on 27 or 28 December rather than the 25th and 26th. The holiday itself keeps its name; only the day you actually get off moves.

This matters for planning: always check the observed date, not the calendar date of the holiday, before you book travel or request leave.

Long weekends in 2027

Because most bank holidays fall on a Monday, they create natural three-day weekends. Add a single day of annual leave around Easter or the December break and you can turn them into much longer stretches.

Easter is the big one: Good Friday and Easter Monday sit either side of the weekend, so you get a four-day break without spending any leave at all. Booking two or three extra days in that window can give you well over a week off.

The late-May Spring Bank Holiday and the August Summer Bank Holiday are the best-weather long weekends, which also makes them the most in demand — UK coastal towns, the Lake District and short-haul European trips fill up fast, so lock in accommodation early.

Bank holidays in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland does not always follow the England and Wales list. It adds 2 January and St Andrew's Day on 30 November, takes its Summer Bank Holiday on the first Monday of August rather than the last, and does not universally observe Easter Monday.

Northern Ireland follows most of the England and Wales dates but adds two of its own: St Patrick's Day on 17 March and the Battle of the Boyne, also called Orangemen's Day, on 12 July. If a trip or a deadline crosses these nations, confirm the local calendar rather than assuming the England and Wales dates apply.

School holidays and planning around them

English and Welsh schools usually take a half-term break the week of the late-May Spring Bank Holiday and another in late October, which is why those weeks are the busiest and most expensive for family travel.

If you have flexibility, the quieter and cheaper windows are the days just after a bank holiday rather than the long weekend itself. Booking accommodation and trains several weeks ahead, especially for Easter and the August holiday, consistently beats last-minute prices.

What's open and what's closed

Banks and most offices close on bank holidays, and post offices and non-urgent public services follow suit. Royal Mail does not deliver on bank holidays.

Shops mostly stay open, often on reduced bank holiday hours. The main exceptions are Easter Sunday and Christmas Day, when large stores over 280 square metres in England and Wales must stay closed by law. Supermarkets, pharmacies and transport run reduced timetables, so check before you travel.

Public transport typically runs a Sunday or special timetable on bank holidays, and engineering works are common on the rail network over the long weekends — another reason to check ahead if a getaway depends on trains.

How we keep this page accurate

Dates follow the official GOV.UK bank holiday schedule for England and Wales, cross-checked against an independent open-source holiday library. Every date in the tables comes from a single data file, and the weekdays and long weekends are calculated automatically, so the page stays correct as the year changes.