It is another map card that has travelled from Great Britain, this time from the north, which belongs to Scotland.

In addition to the main part located on the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 offshore islands. Most of them can be found in four large groups: Shetland, Orkney, Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides. 94 of those islands are inhabited and they are home to around 100,000 people, which is 2% of the total population of Scotland. The largest and most populous island is Lewis and Harris, which I will tell you more about in the next post.

Islands' history is reflected in their names, most of the Hebrides have names with Scots Gaelic derivations, while the Northern Isles are usually derived from Viking names. Interestingly, there are a few places that have the name "isle" or "island", but in fact are something else, like Black Isle and Isle of Whithorn which are peninsulas or villages Isleornsay and Burntisland.

Other fun facts about the Scottish islands? The shortest names belong to islands Bu in Orkney and Oa on Islay. The shortest scheduled flight in the world is 1,5 miles long from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The journey takes only 1 minute 14 seconds. Islands have also been a source of literary inspiration, George Orwell wrote his masterpiece 1984 on the Isle of Jura and Robert Louis Stevenson is supposed to have based Treasure Island upon a map of Unst, the most northerly populated island in Britain.

If you'd like to know which islands are especially worth visiting, have a look at the 10 best islands in Scotland, or top 10 must-visit Scottish islands. I know I will definitely visit all of them, I've been to a few and they were all amazing, can't wait to go back!

postcard sent

16.01.2015

postcard received

20.01.2015

distance travelled

~1898km

sent from

Ardrossan, Scotland