A bridge day is a working day you book as annual leave so it joins a weekend and a bank holiday into one continuous break. Two leave days before an Early May bank holiday that falls on a Monday can yield a four-day stretch when Saturday and Sunday already sit in the middle — that is the pattern ArcYear searches for across the year.
The arc of the year
We look from today through the next calendar year for each UK nation we support. England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland publish different holiday sets; picking the wrong nation quietly ruins the plan. The maximiser keeps nation, working week, and allowance in the URL so a shared link restores the same picture.
What “maximising leave” means here
Maximising does not invent extra public holidays. It ranks opportunities by how many calendar days off you get for the leave days you spend, given your working week. Someone who never works Fridays will see different bridges from someone on a classic Monday–Friday pattern. An optional allowance filter hides arcs that cost more leave than you have left.
Our copy of the dates, not a live feed
Holiday dates are imported on a schedule from public sources, then served from our own store. Pages you open do not wait on a live third-party feed. Nation–year hubs cite GOV.UK and show when we last updated.
Try it
Choose your nation and weekdays, then scan the ranked list. Prefer a short FAQ? See FAQ. Prefer the philosophy? See About.