The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Éire;¹ Isle of Man (United Kingdom); Før Islands² (Danmark¹)

How is the land laid out?

This area is comprised of Great Britain, the world's eighth largest island, and Ireland, Europe's third largest island. The top of the larger island is the Sottish Northern Highlands--almost sliced in two by a long fault. Further south are more uplands, most notably the north-south Pennine Chain, and the west central Cambrian Mountains. The east central and most of the southern part of the island are rolling lowlands.

The other island, Ireland, has scattered highlands in the north and south and poorly drained limestone lowlands in the middle.

Who lives there?

More than sixty million people live on the two islands, more than nine in ten of them on Great Britain. Almost all of them speak English, notwithstanding the co-official status of Irish within the Irish Republic and of Manx on the Isle of Man.⁴ More than 90% of the theists⁵ are Christians, but this community remains bitterly divided. The smaller island is mostly Roman Catholic, overwhelmingly so within its republic. The larger island is mostly Protestant, though with a substantial Catholic minority, and with the distinction between Anglicans in England and Wales, and Calvinist Presbyterians in Scotland.

London, the capital of the U.K. is the only city whose metropolitan area exceeds ten million.

For other metropolitan areas, and other cities see British and Irish cities.

The most important airports are at London (three) and Dublin. Oilports are located at Sullom Voe (Shetland Islands), Flotta (Orkney Islands), Hound Point (near Edinburgh) and Teesport, and a container port at Southampton.

There are numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

Standing Stones of Stenness, Mainland, Orkney Islands, Scotland, U.K.

Besides the World Heritage Sites, tourist destinations include Oxford, the Cotswolds, Wells, Connemar, the Aran Islands and Glen Gesh Pass.

Map

Who was there before?

People arrived here perhaps around the same time they reached the rest of the continent, which was perhaps not long after leaving Ethiopia 100,000 years ago. People were confined to southern England when glaciers covered the rest of the area.

Celtic culture and language evolved in the British Isles simultaneously with the continent. By about 1000 C.E., Primitive Irish was spoken on the one island, and British by the Celts of England; Picts lived in Scotland but their language is little known.

Latin was briefly spoken in England's southern lowlands but faded along with Roman rule.

Next invaders arrived from the Frisian islands and nearby coasts, speaking the ancestral language of English and Frisian, calling themselves Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The language of British, by about 550, had splintered into Primitive Welsh and Primitive Cornish and the Saxons confined these groups to the two peninsulas that bear their names. Meanwhile in the north Picts were invaded from the east by Norse Vikings and from the southwest by the Irish. The latter gave rise to the Gaelic language.

Later, English speakers pushed north into Scotland ending the Picts language and confining the Gaelic-speaking 'Scotti.' Nor did they confine themselves to Great Britain; they invaded and dominated the Irish island to such an extent that the Irish language is all but extinct.⁸ In the last century Manx, the old language of the Isle of Man, and Cornish went extinct,⁹ and Gaelic is in decline.

The early Celts were guided by the Druid priest class, communicated to the under world through sacred pits, and put Lug, a fierce god of magic, at the head of their pantheon. But what most distrubed the visiting Romans was the Celts' preservation of severed heads. The Romans original religion had no lasting impact, but when the Empire became Christian, so did Britain. After the legions left missionaries converted the Irish and Picts, and even, eventually the invading Saxons. The main island was quite orthodox but its sister was only loosely tied to the mother church in Rome for some centuries.

Legal machinations by a continental Roman Catholic king brought about the rebellion of the English king, and the start of the Anglican Church. Though this was primarily and initially an administrative split, soon Protestantism arrived in full force with Puritans in England and other Calvinists in Scotland. Bloody civil wars finally ended with an Anglican Church victory in England (with the help of a Dutch army). But the religious war continued without end in Ireland, and the Puritan revolt against high church was echoed in 19th century pietism, which gave rise to new Protestant religions whose chief importance was to be beyond the islands.

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Other broad topics

The United Kingdom and its possessions
Danmark (Denmark) and its possessions

Footnotes

1. Unofficially called Ireland
2. Officially Foroyar, oyar meaning islands. Called the Faeroe Islands in English.
3. Denmark in English.
4. The languages of various immigrant communities such as Gujaratis and Italians rank ahead of all the indiginous minority tongues except Welsh.
5. The United Kingdom has large numbers who do not profess any religion.
6. Consists of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. It is also called Brú Na Bóinne.
7. Formally the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
8. Beaumaris, Harlech, Caernarfon and Conwy.
9. Includes sites in Derby and Belper, in the Nottingham metropolitan area.
10. Includes sites in Exmouth and Weymouth.
11. Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall.
12. Maeshowe, Standing Stones of Stenness, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae.
8. There are few speakers from birth, though a million people claim to speak it.
9. Though attempts have been made to revive them.