The  British Sundial Society's range of 60 pre-designed horizontal sundials  has an accurately designed version for every 0.1° of latitude between 50° and 56° north which covers England & Wales,  Northern Ireland and much of southern Scotland including Edinburgh and Glasgow. In addition there are designs for Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, John O'Groats,  Orkney and Shetland.  Choose the design nearest to your latitude between 50°N and 56°N and it can never be more than 0.05° off correct calibration.   All the designs are delineated in 3-minute intervals with traditional roman numerals and a choice of ornamental or simple gnomons.

Although the many towns and cities in southern Scotland have been covered with sundials at 0.1° intervals, at this time it has not proved feasible to cover the north in similar detail.  Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, John O'Groats, central Orkney and the Shetlands have dedicated sundials which can be adjusted for the intervening latitudes as follows.  For every 0.1° your location may be to the south of e.g. Dundee, simply tilt the southern edge 0.1° upwards and it will read correctly.  For locations to the north of Dundee tilt the northern edge upwards.

In the same way, the 50.0° dial for southern Cornwall can be adjusted for e.g. the Scillies by tilting its southern edge upwards by the same number of degrees as its displacement in latitude.

Although designed for the UK, these dials can be used in other locations. As an example, image below shows the use of the 50° to 56° dials across northern Europe and into Russia.

Printer Calibration:   Laser printers tend to be more accurate than cheaper inkjet models and their output is less liable to smudging by moisture.  After printing your chosen dial carefully measure across the octagonal edges North/South and East/West.  If there is a big difference between the measurements your sundial may not work as it should so try other printers using a laser type if possible.

Construction:   The dial is constructed by glueing the printed design (dial and gnomon) to 6mm MDF board, cutting out and assembling the pieces and coating the dial to make it showerproof. Details are provided in the following pictures:

For setting up and reading your BSS Horizontal Sundial, please see the Setting Up A Sundial and Reading A Sundial pages.

If you are happy with your dial please send small pictures of the result, with yourself or school class etc. included, to Tony Moss.