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The British Isles is a traditional term used to identify the group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe consisting of Great Britain, Ireland and the many smaller adjacent islands. These islands form an archipelago of more than 6,000 islands off the west coast of Europe – totalling 315,134 km2 (121,674 square miles) of land – consisting of:- Great Britain
- Ireland
- The Isle of Man
- The Isle of Wight
- The Northern Isles, including Orkney, Shetland and Fair Isle
- The Hebrides, including the Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides and Small Isles
- The islands of the lower Firth of Clyde, including Arran and ButeAlternate meaning: Bute (mythology Bute is one of the islands of the lower Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of Buteshire, it now lies in Argyll and Bute. It is separated from Cowal by the Kyles of Bute. In the 2001 census it had a usually residen
- AngleseyAnglesey or Anglesea ( Welsh: Ynys Mon pronounced "Oh-niece Moan"), is an island and county off the northwest coast of Wales. It is separated from the mainland by a narrow stretch of water called the Menai Strait. It is connected to the mainland by two br
- The Isles of ScillyThe Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of islands off the English coast. Forming part of England, they have their own local government in the form of a unitary authority and have also been designated the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- LindisfarneThis article is about Lindisfarne, England . For other uses, see Lindisfarne (disambiguation . Lindisfarne also called Holy Island (variant spelling, Lindesfarne), is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England, which is connected to the mainland o
- LundyFor a map, see the end of this article Lundy is an island in the Bristol Channel of Great Britain, about a third of the way from Devon to the coast of South Wales. It is about 4. 5 km long from north to south by 1 km wide, and is the largest island in the
- The Channel IslandsAlternative meaning: Channel Islands (California The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Normandy, France, in the English Channel. They comprise two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. History Ma1
and many other smaller islands surrounding the islands of Great Britain and Ireland (see list of the British IslesThe British Isles consist of two major islands, many other inhabited islands, and countless uninhabited islands and rocks. They are administered by the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom (which is divided into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ir).
While one would expect a "British Isle" to be British, the inclusion of (the whole of) Ireland in the term has become a political anachronism: the archipelago is divided between two sovereign states, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and three British crown dependencies: the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. While the term British Isles is still widely used, it is therefore a potential source of confusion or offence (see 'Problems with Modern Usage' below).
1 Origin of the term 'British Isles'
The geographical archipelago has been referred to by a single term for over two thousand years, foreign sources using a term pronounced "Brit-" or "Prit-" with various endings and native sources using the terms oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" or insularum meaning "islands". Only in modern times has the term "British Isles" entered the English language.
