When Is Easter 2027? UK Dates and School Holidays

Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March. Good Friday is 26 March and Easter Monday is 29 March, so England, Wales and Northern Ireland get a four-day weekend from Friday 26 to Monday 29 March without anyone using a day of leave. In Scotland, Good Friday is a bank holiday but Easter Monday is not. Below: the dates by nation, how the 2027 school Easter holidays fall in the councils we checked, Easter 2028 for anyone planning further ahead, and what to settle first if you are booking one house for the whole group.

Easter 2027 at a glance

Two more dates worth knowing. The clocks go forward at 1am on Easter Sunday itself, 28 March 2027, when British Summer Time starts: the Saturday night of the long weekend is an hour shorter, and the evenings are lighter from the Sunday on. And in Northern Ireland, St Patrick’s Day is a bank holiday on Wednesday 17 March 2027, nine days before Good Friday.

Is Easter early in 2027?

Fairly. Easter is set by the moon rather than a fixed date, and Easter Sunday can fall anywhere from 22 March to 25 April. In 2027 it is 28 March: a week earlier than in 2026 (5 April) and nearly three weeks earlier than in 2028 (16 April). An early Easter means cooler days and cold evenings, which matters more in a group house than in a hotel. You will spend more of the weekend indoors, so the kitchen, the dining table and somewhere for everyone to sit in the evening count for more than the garden.

Easter 2027 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Wales has the same bank holidays as England. Scotland has Good Friday but not Easter Monday, so a Scottish group gets three days unless people book the Monday off; Edinburgh and Glasgow schools still close on Easter Monday 2027, so it is the adults who need the leave. A group that mixes Scottish and English guests should agree early whether it is going Friday to Sunday or Friday to Monday. Northern Ireland has both Good Friday and Easter Monday, plus St Patrick’s Day earlier in the month. Our full list of UK bank holidays for 2027 has every date for all three.

Easter school holidays 2027

There is no single national Easter school holiday. Councils set term dates for their community and voluntary-controlled schools, and academies and some other schools set their own. We checked the 2026/27 dates on eleven council websites. Seven of the eight English councils break up on Thursday 25 March and go back on Monday 12 April, so their fortnight starts on Good Friday. Leeds keeps its Easter break in the first two full weeks of April whenever Easter falls, and Scotland and Cardiff differ again.

For many families in England, then, the Easter weekend is the start of the school holiday rather than the middle, and the second week (5 to 9 April) is school holiday without the bank holidays. To check your own area, use GOV.UK’s school term dates finder (England and Wales), your council’s website in Scotland, or the school itself in Northern Ireland. Our school holidays 2026/27 guide has every holiday of the year for the same councils.

Easter 2028, and 2026 for comparison

Easter 2028 falls nearly three weeks later in the year than Easter 2027, which usually means milder weather and longer evenings for the same four-day weekend.

Planning a group Easter break

Easter is the first four-day weekend of the year and, in most of the English council areas we checked, the start of the school holidays too, so families, friends and celebrations are all after the same big houses at once. What to settle first:

• Long weekend or longer. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland a Friday-to-Monday stay costs no annual leave. Book the four working days after Easter Monday as leave and you have ten days off, from Good Friday to Sunday 4 April. Minimum stays are set by each owner and can differ over Easter, so check the listing before you plan around three nights.
• The right size of house. Count the doubles and singles your group needs, not just the heads: our guide to who sleeps where explains how to read a listing. Browse houses for Easter or start from houses by group size.
• Somewhere to be indoors. With Easter in March, plan for cold evenings. A hot tub works in any weather and a games room earns its keep on a wet afternoon; our rainy-day guide has the rest.
• The egg hunt and the big lunch. An enclosed garden makes an egg hunt easy with younger children. For Sunday lunch, a private chef takes the cooking off whoever usually ends up doing it. Book the chef once the house is confirmed, because the address decides who can reach you.
• A mixed group. For three generations under one roof, our multi-generational holiday guide covers ground-floor bedrooms, quiet space and who cooks when.

How far ahead to book

No single booking window holds for every house, so ask the owners on your shortlist how their Easter dates usually fill. Easter 2027 is early, so the decision falls in the winter before: agree the dates, collect deposits from the group so nobody drops out after the house is held, then enquire. Our booking checklist sets out the order, and every house enquiry on this site goes straight to the owner.

The short version

Easter 2027: Good Friday 26 March, Easter Sunday 28 March, Easter Monday 29 March (not a bank holiday in Scotland). The clocks go forward on Easter Sunday. Seven of the eight English councils we checked have school Easter holidays from 26 March to 9 April. Easter 2028 is on 16 April. Browse Easter group houses or every group house, and add group experiences once the house is booked.