World Island Info » United Kingdom

Island Collector Seeks to Bag Rockall

World Island Info — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:47:46 +0000

A Scot known as Islandman has gained permission to visit, and sleep on, Rockall.

Rockall is the most isolated outpost of the British Isles, and is well northwest of Ireland. It strains the definition of island, as it is only 80 by 100 feet, and has almost no vegetation or even flat surfaces. No visits to the crag are recorded before 1810, and only four people are known to have slept there.

Islandman, also called Andy Strangeway, is an extreme island collector, and has slept on all Scottish islands of more than 40 hectares, and some 168 Scottish islands in all. On 94 of them, he was the only person sleeping on the island.

The Loch Islands of Islay

World Island Info — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:20:45 +0000

Islayblog.com, which covers the Inner Hebridean island of Islay, in Scotland, is doing a series of pictures of islands on the island. Here’s the first post about it.

Islay has some interesting double islands, including Eilean Mor and Eilean na Comhairle (Council Island) in Loch Finlaggan, which served as administrative centers for the Lords of the Isles and Clan Donald.

Image courtesy ifyr, Flick
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Bleriot: 100 Years since the First Island Flight

World Island Info — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:20:49 +0000

Today is the centennial of Louis Bleriot’s making the first powered flight to the island of Great Britain, from France across the English Channel.

Balloons had made the trip before, but this first flight via airplane changed island geography. Ships were no longer the only means of reaching them, and isolation decreased rapidly as the speed of aircraft increased. And, in the First and Second World Wars, Great Britain and other islands were to discover that airplanes greatly diminished their status as fortresses.

It is not clear whether this was the first powered flight to any island; did aviators fly before this to the Isle of Wight, Long Island, or Manhattan, for instance?

(Image courtesy Smudge 9000, Flickr)

Double island in “Pride and Prejudice”

World Island Info — Sat, 13 May 2006 15:55:42 +0000

A double island — a lake island on the island of Great Britain — has several minutes on screen in the new “Pride and Prejudice”.

It is in the background while Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are arguing in a pillared pavillion, one hour and eight minutes in on the DVD.

The real island is part of the gardens of Stourhead Estate; the pavillion seems to be the Temple of Apollo.

“Couple revel in island isolation”

World Island Info — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:08:40 +0000

Going off to be alone on Sanda, Scotland. Said incoming island caretaker Charles McVey, “I wanted to do something totally different and can’t wait for the isolation. People say I’ll go crazy and told me not to watch The Shining.”

“Clan declares war over £1m island”

World Island Info — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 03:07:25 +0000

A dispute has broken out over a tiny double island—an island in a body of water on another island—in Loch Lomond, Scotland.