Britain’s biggest islands, from Skye to Anglesey
Lewis and Harris, at the far northwest of Britain, is by far the UK’s biggest offshore island – but for the number of homes it fails to make the top five isles. And the most populous island is one that many people do not even recognise: Portsea in Hampshire.
In a groundbreaking piece of research, Ordnance Survey has teamed up with the University of Sheffield to explore Great Britain’s largest islands: the 82 that are bigger than 5 square kilometres (2 square miles).
Scotland boasts the vast majority with 71; England takes a distant second place with nine; and Wales has just two: Anglesey and the isle that lies beyond it, Holy Island.
Of the top 10, all but two are Scottish. Anglesey takes fifth place and the Isle of Wight is ninth.
Lewis and Harris, which despite the name is a single landmass, is the same size as Leicestershire at 2,150 square kilometres. That makes it one-third larger than Skye, in second place, and more than twice the size of mainland Shetland in third.
Yet mainland Shetland is much more crinkled. Its coastline, at 1,113km, is only 79km shorter than that of Lewis and Harris.
North Uist is the 12th-largest island, but has the fifth-longest coastline. Conversely, Arran is the eighth-largest island but has the 18th-longest coastline.
The researchers then added residential addresses from a data base to compute the number of homes on each island.
The winning island for addresses is Portsea in Hampshire, which is separated from the rest of the county only by a narrow channel, Portsbridge Creek. Many visitors do not realise they are on an island.
Portsea Island includes the city of Portsmouth and the seaside resort of Southsea, and has a total of 74,645 residential addresses.
The island in second place for homes faces directly across to Portsea: the Isle of Wight, with only around 2,000 fewer.
Anglesey, and the two Thames estuary isles of Sheppey (Kent) and Canvey Island (Essex), take third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
The highest Scottish entrant is Lewis and Harris, in sixth place with barely 10,000 residential addresses.
Hayling Island, adjacent to Portsea, takes seventh place with 8,721 homes.
Scarba, southwest of Oban, is the same size as Hayling Island but has only one residential address: Kilmory Lodge, which is used by visiting deer hunters.
The Inner Hebridean islanis separated from Jura by the Gulf of Corryvreckan, which has a notorious whirlpool.
Five of the 82 islands in the survey have no homes at all: Taransay, Scarp, Hirta, Mingulay and Pabbay.
According to research by The Independent, only five of the islands have railways: Anglesey, Holy Island, the Isle of Wight, Portsea and Sheppey.
The Isle of Thanet in Kent, the Isle of Dogs in east London and and the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset do not make the list because they are not actual islands.
Top five islands by area
Lewis and Harris
Skye
Mainland Shetland
Mull
Anglesey
Top five islands by length of coastline
Lewis and Harris
Mainland Shetland
Skye
Mull
North Uist
Top five islands by residential addresses
Portsea Island
Isle of Wight
Anglesey
Isle of Sheppey
Canvey Island
