Only 5 Pharmacies in Northern Ireland Open on Sundays — and None After 9pm
We analysed the opening hours of all 506 community pharmacies in Northern Ireland. After 6pm on a weekday, just 9 remain open. After 9pm, none. On Sundays, five.
The Sunday Five
Every Sunday-opening pharmacy in Northern Ireland sits inside a shopping centre or retail park, and four of the five are Boots:
Medicare Pharmacy
Forestside Shopping Centre, Belfast
1pm–6pm
Boots
Rushmere Shopping Centre, Craigavon
1pm–6pm
Boots
Crescent Link Retail Park, Derry/Londonderry
1pm–6pm
Boots
Ards Shopping Centre, Newtownards
1pm–5.30pm
Boots
Asda Shopping Centre, Coleraine
1.30pm–5.30pm
Sunday Opening: 5 out of 506 Pharmacies (1%)
That leaves enormous areas — including every pharmacy in Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone — with no Sunday-opening pharmacy at all under standard hours.
The 6pm Cliff
Most of Northern Ireland's pharmacies keep shop hours. The standard pattern, covering the large majority of the network, is Monday to Friday 9am–5.30pm or 9am–6pm, with a half-day or closure on Saturday.
Weekday Evening Pharmacy Availability
After 6pm on a weekday, just 9 pharmacies remain open. After 8pm, five. After 9pm, none. The latest-closing pharmacies in the country — a Medicare in Belfast and a Boots in Co. Antrim — close at 9pm.
For comparison, in the Republic of Ireland a number of pharmacies trade until 10pm or later in the major cities.
Saturdays Are Better
While Sundays are nearly a complete shutdown, Saturdays see two-thirds of the network open for at least part of the day.
Saturday Opening: 338 of 506 Pharmacies (67%)
So What Do You Do at 10pm With a Sick Child?
This is the gap the out-of-hours rota exists to fill. Health and Social Care arranges a rota of pharmacies that open for limited additional hours on Sundays and public holidays, published weekly by the BSO — and outside those hours, urgent medication is handled by the GP out-of-hours service and NHS 111, which can arrange an emergency supply where clinically appropriate.
The practical answer for patients:
- 1.Check pharmacytimes.uk for the nearest pharmacy currently open — we hold the live hours for all 506.
- 2.If nothing nearby is open, check the current BSO Sunday/holiday rota.
- 3.For urgent medication advice at any hour, call NHS 111 (free).
- 4.In a medical emergency, call 999.
NHS 111
Free urgent medication advice, 24/7
GP Out-of-Hours
Contact your Trust's OOH service
999
Life-threatening emergency only
About this data
Figures are computed from the contracted hours of service in the BSO Pharmaceutical List (April 2026 edition), the official monthly register of community pharmacies providing Health Service dispensing in Northern Ireland. Some pharmacies — notably those inside supermarkets — may trade retail hours longer than their contracted dispensing hours; rota and holiday openings are additional to the standard hours shown.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Notes for journalists: county-level breakdowns, the full list of 506 pharmacies with parsed opening hours, and the underlying dataset are available as a CSV on request. We can provide same-day local angles for any council area. Contact us.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Pharmacy data © Business Services Organisation.