THE ISLANDS

The United Kingdom covers most of an island group called the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands - Great Britain and Ireland - and thousands of small islands. The United Kingdom’s area is about 244,100 square km. The total area of the British Isles is 322,246 square km, but the largest part of the island of Ireland is occupied by the independent Republic of Ireland or Eire.

Great Britain, the largest of the British Isles, is the largest island in Europe and the eighth largest island in the world. It covers 218,980 square km. It is located off the north-west coast of the mainland of Europe and is separated from the continent by the English Channel in the south and the North Sea in the east.

Politically, the island of Great Britain consists of three of the four political divisions of the country of the United Kingdom. The divisions are England, which covers most of the southern two-thirds of the island; Scotland, which covers the northern third; and Wales, a small division in the southwest. The fourth political division of the United Kingdom - Northern Ireland - lies just west of Great Britain, in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Britain stretches for over 900 km from south to north (as a Concorde flies) and is some 500 km across in the widest part and 60 km in the narrowest.

The westernmost point of the English mainland is Land’s End, a mass of granite cliffs, which plunge into the sea. The most southerly point of Great Britain is Lizard Point, a mass of rock, which can be carved and polished, into ornaments, and the most north-western point is John O’Groats.

The second largest island of the British Archipelago is Ireland with an area of 84, 000 square kilometres.

Off the north-western coast of Great Britain there is a group of islands known as the Hebrides. They are divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the groups of islands, separated from each other by the Sea of the Hebrides and the Little Minch. Out of the total of 500 islands of the Hebrides more than half are inhabitable. Only several families live on some of them.

The Orkney Islands, comprising about a hundred islands, are separated from the mainland by the seven-mile Pentland Firth. Only a third of the islands are inhabited.

Seventy miles north of the Orkneys are the Shetland Islands, which are far from being prosperous, and the population is steadily decreasing.

In the middle of the Irish Sea there is the Isle of Man. Another important island in the Irish Sea is Anglesey, situated off the north coast of Wales.

The Isle of Wight is in the English Channel. With its sunny beaches and pleasant varied countryside, the island forms one of the South Coast’s most important tourist resorts. It is linked to London by ferry and rail services.

Off the extreme south-western coast of Great Britain there is a tiny group of the Isles of Scilly.

The Channel Islands, which lie to the southwest of the French side of the English Channel, can be better seen from a map of northwest France than southern England. The population of the islands, which is over 133,000, greatly increases in summer due to holidaymakers. Here there is a strict legislation over immigration and the purchase of property. The chief islands of the group are Jersey and Guernsey, Jersey being the largest in the group.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1418