Current time in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
The current local time in Edinburgh is shown below. Edinburgh observes GMT in winter and BST during daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time
Sunrise & sunset today
Timezone facts
Edinburgh in context
Edinburgh sits on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in east-central Scotland, the capital of Scotland and the second-largest Scottish city with around 525,000 residents in the council area. The metropolitan region of around 900,000 extends along the Forth estuary west toward Stirling and east toward East Lothian. The geography is defined by Castle Rock, a basalt plug at the historic city centre, and the volcanic hill of Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park to the east.
Timezone history of Edinburgh
Edinburgh shares Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time with the rest of the United Kingdom, sitting at around 3.2 degrees west longitude. The city's latitude of 55.95 degrees north is significantly higher than London's, producing more dramatic seasonal variation in day length: late-December sunsets arrive before 15:45, while summer twilight lingers past 22:30 at the solstice. There has been periodic Scottish political interest in moving to Central European Time, but the change would require UK-wide legislation.
Working hours in Edinburgh
Edinburgh's working day runs 09:00 to 17:30, with the substantial financial services sector concentrated along Lothian Road and around St Andrew Square anchoring the city's white-collar economy. Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life Aberdeen, and Scottish Widows all maintain major operations here. The Edinburgh Festival in August (the world's largest arts festival by attendance) effectively closes large parts of the city to ordinary business for around three weeks, with hospitality running at full capacity throughout.