The United Kingdom is situated on the British Isles off the northwestern coast of Europe. It consists of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland on the island of Great Britain along with over 1,000 smaller islands. The British Isles encompass the UK as well as the Republic of Ireland and surrounding islands. Major islands in the British Isles include Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, and numerous others.

1. Click me to start
Geographical position
and
composition of the country
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2. The United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland is situated
on the British Isles.
What is the British Isles?
The British Isles is a
geographical term which
includes Great Britain,
the whole of Ireland and
all the offshore islands,
lying off the north-
western coastline of
Europe.
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3. A diagram clarifying the terminology:
 geographic-only locations;
 political entities (may also be geographic terms).
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4. The Islands in the British Isles
The British Isles consists of the following islands:
• Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales);
• Ireland (the Republic of Ireland) - a country west of England across the Irish Sea
(not part of the United Kingdom);
• Northern Ireland ( part of the United Kingdom);
• The Orkney and Shetland Islands - islands off the northeast coast of Scotland;
• The Isle of Man - an island in the Irish Sea;
• Hebrides (including the Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides and Small Isles) All are
islands off the northwest coast of Scotland;
• The Isle of Wight - an island off the southern coast of England;
• Isles of Scilly - an island off the southwest coast of England;
• Lundy Island - an island off the southwest coast of England;
• The Channel Islands - a group of small islands in the English Channel, off the coast
of Normandy, France. The principal islands of the group include Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney and Sark;
• Plus many other offshore islands.
Click on the name of the island to get more information.
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5. The United Kingdom
The UK is situated north-west of the
European continent between the
Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
It has a total land area of 244,100
square kilometres, of which nearly
99% is land and the remainder
inland water. From north to south it
is about 1,000 kilometres long.
The official name of the UK is the
"United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland".
The United Kingdom is made up of
England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
The UK is part of Europe and a
member of the European Union (EU).
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6. The UK is bordered by four seas:
• to the south by the English Channel
and the Strait of Dover, which separate
it from continental Europe;
• to the east by the North Sea;
• to the west by the Irish Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean.
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7. The English Channel , also known as
La Manche (French ‘the sleeve’ from
its shape) is a narrow arm of the
Atlantic Ocean separating the
southern coast of England from the
northern coast of France and
tapering eastward to its junction
with the North Sea at the Strait of
Dover. With an area of some 75,000
square kilometres, it is the smallest
of the shallow seas covering the
continental shelf of Europe.
The English Channel
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8. The Strait of Dover
(French: Pas de Calais)
The Strait of Dover is a narrow water
passage separating England (northwest)
from France (southeast) and connecting the
English Channel (southwest) with the North
Sea (northeast).
It is just 33 kilometers wide between Dover
and Calais, and is considered to be the
busiest shipping lane in the world.
The Channel Tunnel passes under it.
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9. The North Sea
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10. The Irish Sea
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11. What is Great Britain?
 Great Britain is the official name given to the two kingdoms of
England and Scotland, and the principality of Wales. It is an
island lying off the western coast of Europe, comprising the
main territory of the United Kingdom.
 Great Britain is made up of:
• England - The capital is London;
• Scotland - The capital is Edinburgh;
• Wales - The capital is Cardiff.
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12. England comprises the central and southern
two-thirds of the island of Great Britain.
It is bordered to the north by
Scotland and to the west by
Wales.
It is closer to continental
Europe than any other part of
Britain, divided from France
only by a 52 km sea gap.
The Channel Tunnel directly
links England to the European
mainland. The English/French
border is halfway along the
tunnel.
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13. Scotland is a nation in northwest Europe and one of
the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
It occupies the northern third
of the island of Great Britain
and shares a land border to
the south with England.
It is bounded by the North
Sea to the east, the Atlantic
Ocean to the north and west,
and the North Channel and
Irish Sea to the southwest.
Apart from the mainland,
Scotland consists of over 790
islands.
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14. Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain.
It is about 274 km (170 miles)
north-south and 97 km (60
miles) east-west.
Wales is bordered by England
to the east and by sea in the
other three directions: the
Bristol Channel to the south,
St. George's Channel to the
west, and the Irish Sea to the
north. Altogether, Wales has
over 1,200 km (750 miles) of
coastline.
There are several islands off the
Welsh mainland, the largest
being Anglesey in the
northwest.
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15. The Isle of Man
The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles, an archipelago off the north
western coast of mainland Europe. The island is located geographically in
the middle of the Irish Sea, approximately between England, Scotland and
Ireland.
How big is the Isle of Man?
Approximately 32 miles (48 km) long and between 8 and 15 miles (13 and
24 km) wide.
More than 40% of the Island is uninhabited.
What makes the Isle of Man different from
anywhere else in the British Isles?
The Island is a unique self-governing kingdom - a Crown dependency which
belongs to neither the UK nor the European Union. It has its own parliament,
laws, traditions, culture, cuisine and postage stamps.
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16. Ireland (Irish: Éire)
 is the third largest island in Europe;
 the twentieth-largest island in the world;
 It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by
hundreds of islands and islets. It is bound to the west by the Atlantic
Ocean, to the northeast by the North Channel. To the east of Ireland,
separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain;
 Politically, the Republic of Ireland (also known officially as Ireland)
covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland, part of the
United Kingdom, covering the remainder in the north-east;
 The capital is Dublin. back

17. Northern Ireland
 Northern Ireland (Irish:
Ulster) is a constituent
country of the United
Kingdom, lying in the
northeast of the island of
Ireland, covering about a
sixth of the island's total
area.
 It is separated from the
island of Great Britain by
the North Channel.
 Northern Ireland
consists of six of the
nine counties of the
province of Ulster.
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18. The Orkney and
Shetland Islands
 Orkney (also known as the
Orkney Islands) is an island group
in northern Scotland. Orkney
comprises over 70 islands; around
20 are inhabited. The largest
island, known as “the Mainland” is
the sixth-largest Scottish island
and the ninth-largest island
surrounding the island of Great
Britain.
 Shetland is an archipelago off
the northeast coast of mainland
Scotland.
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19. The Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is an English island and
county in the English Channel three miles
from the south coast of Great Britain.
Isle of Wight is approximately diamond in
shape and covers an area of 380 km². and
has 92 km of coastline. The landscape of the
Island is remarkably diverse, leading to its
oft-quoted description of
"England in Miniature".
The West Wight is predominantly rural, with
dramatic coastlines dominated by the famous
chalk ridges, running across the whole Island
and ending in The Needles.
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20. The Needles
a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western
coast. A lighthouse designed by Scottish civil engineer James Walker has stood
at the western end of the formation since 1859.
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21. The Channel Tunnel
 Location: Beneath the English Channel
(Strait of Dover);
 Status: Active;
 Start: Folkestone, Kent, England;
 End: Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais, France;
 Opened: 6 May 1994;
 Description: The tunnel consists of three
parallel tunnels. There are two rail tunnels,
which carry trains north-west and south-east.
Between the rail tunnels there is a service
tunnel served by narrow rubber-tyred vehicles.
It gives maintenance workers access to the
rail tunnels and provides a route for escape
during emergencies;
 Statistics: The Channel Tunnel is 50.450 km
long, of which 37.9 km are undersea. The
average depth is 45.7 m underneath the
seabed, and the deepest is 60 m. The
undersea section, at 37.9 km, is the longest
undersea tunnel in the world.
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22. The Mainland
The Mainland is the main island of Orkney, Scotland
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23. Anglesey
Anglesey is a predominantly
Welsh-speaking island off the
northwest coast of Wales. It is
connected to the mainland by two
bridges spanning the fifteen mile
long Menai Strait: the original
Menai Suspension Bridge,
designed by Thomas Telford in
1826; and the newer
reconstructed Britannia Bridge
originally designed by Robert
Stephenson.
Anglesey is also a county which
includes Holy Island and other
nearby small islands.
With an area of 276 square miles
(715 km²), Anglesey is the largest
Welsh island, and the fifth largest
surrounding Britain.
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24. Aerial view of the Menai Strait
and the bridges.
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25. Menai Suspension Bridge
The Menai Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge between the island
of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.
Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it is one of the first
modern suspension bridges in the world.
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26. Britannia Bridge
Britannia Bridge is a bridge across the Menai Strait between the
island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, originally a tubular
bridge, and now a two level steel truss arch bridge carrying both
trains and road traffic.
The present day bridge has a much different appearance than the
original. This is because it has been reconstructed after a
disastrous fire in 1970. A group of teenagers looking for bats in the
dark tubes accidentally dropped the burning paper they were using
as a torch. This eventually started a fire through the whole tubular
structure that caused much damage to the tubes.
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27. Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise an
archipelago off the west coast of
Scotland, and in geological terms
are composed of the oldest rocks
in the British Isles.
They can be divided into two
main groups: Inner Hebrides and
Outer Hebrides.
The Hebrides as a whole are
sometimes referred to as the
Western Isles, but this term is
more accurately applied just to
the Outer Hebrides, which were
once known as The Long Island.
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28. The Inner Hebrides
The Inner Hebrides is an
archipelago off the west coast of
Scotland, to the south east of the
Outer Hebrides. Traditionally, the
Inner Hebrides have been
subdivided into two groups:
northern and southern.
The Isle of Skye, commonly known
as Skye, is the largest and most
northerly island in the Inner
Hebrides of Scotland. Skye is linked
to the mainland by the Skye Bridge.
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29. The Outer Hebrides
They form part of the
Hebrides, separated from the
Scottish mainland and from
the Inner Hebrides by the
stormy stretch of water
known as the Minch and the
Little Minch.
The Outer Hebrides are
situated approximately 30
miles off the West Coast of
Scotland. There are 11
inhabited Islands in the
archipelago which is over
200km long. The island of
Barra is at the southern end
and Lewis at the northern
end.
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30. Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris in the
Outer Hebrides make up the
largest island in Scotland. It
has an area of 841 square
miles (2,180 km²) - slightly
under one per cent of the
area of Great Britain.
The northern part of the
island is called Lewis, the
southern is Harris and both
are frequently referred to as Callanish stone circle
if they were separate
islands.
Lewis was first settled in
the Iron Age - people who
left their mark in the
countless Neolithic sites
which scatter the island.
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31. The Isle of Skye
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32. The Skye Bridge
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33. London
London /lʌndən/ is the
capital and largest
urban area of England
and the United
Kingdom.
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34. Edinburgh
Edinburgh /ɛdɪnb(ə)rə/ is
the capital of Scotland,
the seventh-largest city in
the United Kingdom.
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35. Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital
and largest city of Wales.
location of the city of Cardiff (light green)
within the Principality of Wales (dark
green)
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36. Belfast
Belfast (from the Irish: meaning "Sandy ford at
river mouth") is the capital of Northern Ireland. It
is the largest urban area in Northern Ireland and
the province of Ulster and the second-largest
city on the island of Ireland.
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37. Dublin
Dublin /dʌblɨn/ (meaning Town of the
Hurdled Ford) is both the largest city and
the capital of Ireland.
It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's
east coast, at the mouth of the River
Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin
Region.
It is an economic, administrative and
cultural centre for the island of Ireland.
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