WITH the UK heatwave over and August bank holiday weekend approaching, a British journalist has built an app that could solve the nation’s oldest problem – not knowing where the sun is going to be.
Chase the Sun is a sunshine navigation app covering nearly 1,000 handpicked destinations across Britain and Ireland. Open it on a grey morning and it scans real-time weather forecasts across beaches, castles, forests, waterfalls and country parks, then navigates users turn-by-turn to whichever location has the best sunshine conditions right now.
“Britain and Ireland get a bad reputation for weather,” says Michael Carroll, the news editor behind the app. “But the sun is almost always shining somewhere. The problem is nobody knows where.”
Built by a journalist, powered by AI
Carroll has no coding experience. What he had was a clear product vision and AI tools that have fundamentally changed what a single non-technical founder can build.
“I describe it as two people working together – one of whom can actually code,” he says.
The project began in March 2026. Less than six months later, Chase the Sun is live on Google Play with 945 curated destinations and growing, every one pinned to the nearest safe car park so users always know exactly where to stop.
Copyright Michael D. Carroll
The disasters
No startup story is complete without them. One coordinate was sitting in the middle of Loch Ness. An entire national park was pinned on a mountain summit with no road. The payment system silently failed for three months without anyone knowing.
“Every bug felt catastrophic at the time,” Carroll says. “But they’ve all become the what makes the app strong.”
The product
Chase the Sun is free to download. Free users get the twelve nearest sunny destinations within fifty miles, with today and tomorrow’s forecast and full navigation. Premium subscribers – from £3.99 per month, unlock all 945 destinations across Britain and Ireland, a five-day forecast and unlimited range.
Chase the Sun App: Copyright Michael D. Carroll
The future
iOS is pending Apple approval. A US expansion is in development.
For the bank holiday weekend, the pitch is simple: open the app on Saturday morning, find out where the sun is, and go there.