Few places on a map produce as much confusion over names as the islands off the north-west coast of Europe. Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Britain, England and the British Isles are used as if they meant the same thing, and they do not. The map is simple once you separate the geography from the politics.
The geography: two large islands and many small ones
The term British Isles is a geographical one. It covers the two largest islands, Great Britain and Ireland, plus the many smaller islands around them. It does not describe a country, and many people in Ireland dislike the term, which is why you will also see “Britain and Ireland” or “these islands” used for the same group.
- Great Britain is the largest island, home to England, Scotland and Wales.
- Ireland is the second largest island, shared between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
- Around them lie hundreds of smaller islands, from the Shetland and Orkney groups in the far north to the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall.
The politics: the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the country. It is made up of four parts: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So Great Britain is an island and the UK is a state, and the difference is Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK but not part of Great Britain.
“Britain” is an informal name used in two ways, sometimes for the island and sometimes for the whole UK. England is only one of the four parts, even if it is the largest by population.
The Republic of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland covers most of the island of Ireland and is an independent state, separate from the UK and a member of the European Union. The border between the Republic and Northern Ireland is the only land border anywhere in the British Isles.
The Crown Dependencies
Three territories in the islands belong to neither the UK nor Ireland, and they are the part most maps get wrong. The UK government lists the Crown Dependencies as the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. According to the UK government, they are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown, with their own directly elected assemblies, their own administrative, fiscal and legal systems, and their own courts.
Jersey and Guernsey, the Channel Islands, lie much closer to the coast of Normandy in France than to England. The Isle of Man sits in the Irish Sea, roughly between Great Britain and Ireland.
The main island groups
- The Hebrides, Inner and Outer, off the west coast of Scotland.
- Orkney and Shetland, north of the Scottish mainland, with a strong Norse history.
- Anglesey, off north-west Wales, linked to the mainland by bridges.
- The Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.
- The Isles of Scilly, south-west of Cornwall.
- The Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland.
Mountains and languages on the map
The highest ground lies in the north and west: the Scottish Highlands, the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales, the Lake District in north-west England and the ranges of south-west Ireland. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The south and east of England are much lower and flatter.
Place names on a detailed map also reflect the older languages of the islands. Welsh is widely used in Wales, Scottish Gaelic in parts of the Highlands and the Western Isles, and Irish in the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland. The Isle of Man has its own language, Manx, which explains names that look unfamiliar even to visitors from Britain.
The seas around them
The North Sea lies to the east, separating Great Britain from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The English Channel runs between southern England and France, narrowing to the Strait of Dover. The Irish Sea sits between Great Britain and Ireland, and to the west the islands face the open Atlantic, which gives them their mild and wet climate.
Reading the islands in context
The British Isles sit at the meeting point of several regions covered on this site. The map of Western Europe places them next to France and the Low Countries, and the map of Northern Europe links them to Scandinavia across the North Sea. Their western coasts face the ocean described in the map of the Atlantic. If you want to see the mountains of Wales from the inside, our account of hiking Snowdon covers one of the best routes to the top.
The UK government explains the status of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man on its Crown Dependencies page.
