The Shipping Forecast Gift Guide & Collectables

If I'm up late, I find it relaxing to end my day by listening to the Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4. There is something very calming about hearing Sailing By and then mentally working around the map as the forecast for each area is read out. This page brings together the best Shipping Forecast gifts and merchandise I'd buy for the Radio 4 fans in my own family — the books, sea-area maps and prints, tea towels, mugs and t-shirts — and it's refreshed each month so that what you see is currently in stock on Amazon UK. If you're hunting for a present for a weather-lover or a late-night Radio 4 listener, this is a good place to start.

New: our Very British Father’s Day Gift Guide — Dad’s Army, Monty Don, the Shipping Forecast and the Sunday roast, checked in stock and refreshed quarterly.

Last refreshed: June 2026

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click a link and buy, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the site running and the kettle on.

Sea-area maps, posters & wall art

Framed prints and posters of the 31 standard shipping forecast areas — handsome on a kitchen wall, irresistible to anyone who loves a map.

Books about the Shipping Forecast

From Charlie Connelly's much-loved travelogue to Peter Jefferson's insider memoir and Peter Collyer's coast-by-coast watercolours — the books that explain why this little weather bulletin has lasted a century.

Tea towels, mugs & kitchen gifts

Mugs and tea towels printed with the sea areas, plus a few aprons and coasters — the classic British weekend gift, perfect for birthdays, retirements or anyone who turns the radio on while they wash up.

Shipping Forecast t-shirts & clothing

A Shipping Forecast t-shirt is the easiest bit of merchandise to wrap and post — printed with the sea areas or a wry forecast pun, it's a good-natured gift for a weather-lover or a Radio 4 fan who already has the books and the mug. Both of these are in stock on Amazon UK as this guide was last refreshed.

Magazine subscriptions for Radio 4 listeners

If the Shipping Forecast fan in your life already has the books and the tea towel, a magazine subscription is the gift that arrives twelve times a year and never repeats itself. Three titles from our affiliate partners that share the same gentle, well-made, Radio 4-shaped audience.

Country Living UK

via Hearst Magazines UK

Slow living, kitchen gardens, country recipes and gentle craft features — the magazine that reads like a print version of a quiet Sunday morning on Radio 4.

Subscribe at Hearst Magazines UK

House Beautiful UKMagazine subscription

House Beautiful UK

via Hearst Magazines UK

Real British homes, decorating ideas and gentle garden features — the magazine for the kind of household where the kitchen radio is tuned to Radio 4 and the late-night forecast goes out as the kettle goes on.

Subscribe at Hearst Magazines UK

Good Housekeeping UKMagazine subscription

Good Housekeeping UK

via Hearst Magazines UK

Triple-tested recipes, household reviews and consumer journalism — the long-running domestic title with the same Radio 4-shaped audience as the late-night forecast.

Subscribe at Hearst Magazines UK

Frequently asked questions about the Shipping Forecast

When is the Shipping Forecast broadcast on Radio 4?

The full Shipping Forecast goes out four times a day on BBC Radio 4: at 00:48 (late-night, the longest reading), 05:20, 12:01 and 17:54. The late-night edition is the one most people picture — it follows the calming theme tune 'Sailing By' and runs through every sea area, the inshore waters and the coastal stations. Times can shift slightly with the cricket and the news, but the late edition has been an unbroken Radio 4 fixture for decades.

What are the 31 shipping forecast areas?

The 31 standard sea areas around the British Isles, read in fixed order clockwise from the south-west, are: Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay, Trafalgar, FitzRoy, Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes and South-east Iceland. Trafalgar is only included in the late-night reading; FitzRoy was renamed from Finisterre in 2002 to honour Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, who invented the first British storm-warning service in 1859.

What is 'Sailing By' and why is it played before the Shipping Forecast?

'Sailing By' is a waltz composed by Ronald Binge in 1963. The BBC began using it to lead into the 00:48 Shipping Forecast in 1967, mainly because its leisurely 1-minute-39-second length gives crews at sea a clearly recognisable cue to tune in. It's stayed in that slot ever since and has become one of British radio's most beloved pieces of mood music.

Why is the Shipping Forecast so calming?

Part of it is the cadence — the format is so tightly fixed (gale warnings, sea areas in order, wind direction, force, sea state, weather, visibility) that listeners stop processing the meaning and just enjoy the rhythm. Part of it is association: for many people the late-night reading is bound up with childhood memories of falling asleep to a kitchen radio, and that's a hard feeling to replicate.

Where can I listen to the Shipping Forecast online?

The Shipping Forecast streams free on BBC Sounds during the four daily broadcasts, and recent editions stay available on the BBC Radio 4 schedule for around 30 days. The Met Office also publishes the written forecast text at metoffice.gov.uk, updated several times a day.

Who reads the Shipping Forecast?

The duty BBC Radio 4 newsreader reads each edition — currently a small rotating roster of continuity announcers in Broadcasting House. Charlotte Green, Brian Perkins, Peter Jefferson, Zeb Soanes and Kathy Clugston are among the most fondly-remembered voices of recent decades. Peter Jefferson's memoir 'And Now the Shipping Forecast' (listed above) is the insider's account of what it's actually like to read it live.

How old is the Shipping Forecast?

The first dedicated weather warnings for shipping were issued in 1861 by Robert FitzRoy's Meteorological Office. The Shipping Forecast in something close to its current radio form was first broadcast on 1 January 1924 by what was then the British Broadcasting Company, making it more than a century old. The format has been remarkably stable ever since, and the late-night reading has gone out on Radio 4 since the station launched in 1967.

What does 'gale warning' actually mean?

A gale warning is issued when winds of Beaufort force 8 (34–40 knots) or more are expected within the next 24 hours. The forecast also uses 'severe gale' for force 9, 'storm' for force 10, 'violent storm' for force 11 and 'hurricane force' for force 12 or above. Listeners pick these terms up by osmosis — by the time you've heard 'south-westerly gale 8, increasing severe gale 9' a few hundred times, the Beaufort scale starts to feel like ordinary language.

Where can I buy Shipping Forecast merchandise?

Most Shipping Forecast merchandise is sold through Amazon UK and a handful of independent makers. The most popular gifts are the sea-area mugs and tea towels, t-shirts printed with the forecast areas or a forecast joke, framed sea-area maps and prints for the wall, and the books about the broadcast itself. Everything featured on this page — mugs, tea towels, t-shirts, maps and books — is checked for stock when we refresh the guide each month, so the links should take you to something you can actually buy rather than a delisted page.

A short guide to the sea areas in the Shipping Forecast

Where is Dogger?

Dogger covers the central North Sea, named after the Dogger Bank — a sandbank about 60 miles off the east coast of England that's one of the richest fishing grounds in Europe. It sits between Forties to the north, Humber to the west and German Bight to the east, and is one of the most frequently-mentioned areas in winter gale warnings.

Where is German Bight?

German Bight is the south-eastern corner of the North Sea, bounded by the German and Dutch coasts. The name dates from before the First World War; in modern German the same patch of water is called the 'Deutsche Bucht'. It's a notorious area for short, steep seas thrown up by winds funnelling between the continental coast and the Frisian Islands.

Where is FitzRoy?

FitzRoy is the large area in the eastern Atlantic west of the Iberian peninsula, bounded by Sole to the north, Trafalgar to the south, Biscay to the east and the open Atlantic to the west. The Met Office renamed it from Finisterre to FitzRoy in 2002 to honour Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle on Darwin's voyage and the founder of what became the modern Met Office.

Where is Rockall?

Rockall covers the deep Atlantic west of the Hebrides, named for the small uninhabited granite islet that sticks up out of the ocean about 260 miles west of mainland Scotland. The UK formally claimed Rockall in 1955 — the last territorial annexation of the British Empire — and the surrounding waters are some of the roughest in the British forecast zone.

Where is Trafalgar?

Trafalgar covers the Atlantic approaches off Cape Trafalgar in south-western Spain, including the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. It's the only sea area read solely in the 00:48 late-night edition, because daytime conditions there are normally covered by Spanish and Portuguese meteorological services.

What are the inshore waters?

The inshore-waters forecast is a separate 18-area bulletin covering the seas within 12 nautical miles of the UK coast, read after the main shipping forecast in the late-night and early-morning editions. It's the one yacht crews, sea anglers and harbourmasters actually use to plan their day, and the areas (Cape Wrath to Rattray Head, Rattray Head to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and so on round the coast) follow a different naming convention from the offshore sea areas.

More from Saturday & Sunday

• The Archers gift guide & reading list
• Countryside walks across the UK
• Family-friendly gardening ideas
• Family weekend days out

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click a link and buy, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the site running and the kettle on.