'Three norths' alignment about to end

Summary

A British Geological Survey scientist measuring magnetic north while working with the Ordnance Survey to calculate when the three norths left England. BGS © UKRI. A rare conjunction of true, magnetic and grid north in Great Britain is about to come to an end and will likely not be seen again for several centuries. Dubbed the ‘three norths’ alignment, the correlation began in November 2022 when the true, magnetic and grid norths met in the village of Langton Matravers in Dorset. But the alignment point hasn’t stood still — it has been moving slowly northwards through Great Britain over the past three years. New magnetic field data collected by the British Geological Survey (BGS), along with calculations made by Ordnance Survey (OS), indicate that the triple alignment left England at Berwick-upon-Tweed on 13 December 2025 and moved into the North Sea. “Due to refinement of the underlying models and the prediction data, the alignment’s progress has slowed slightly since the initial predictions back in 2022,” said Mark Greaves, an Earth measurement expert at OS. “When it crosses the coast at Berwick-upon-Tweed it will have travelled 576 km (about 358 miles) in 1127 days so that’s about 511 m per day (or about 5.9 mm per second or about 0.013 miles per hour). “It will likely be a very long time before the alignment comes around again.” A visualisation of where and when the ‘three norths’ aligned between 2022 and 2025. © Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2025. The exit at Berwick-upon-Tweed will not be fully the end, though. Predictions indicate that the ‘three norths’ will make landfall again at the end of October 2026 in the village of Drums in Scotland. Continuing its passage north, the configuration will then leave Scotland at Fraserburgh in mid-December 2026 and head out again into the North Sea, staying in alignment for several years before magnetic north separates off. Indeed, it is the shifting magnetic field that is the main reason behind the a...