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114-733: The Anglian Stage is the name used in the British Isles for a middle Pleistocene glaciation. It precedes the Hoxnian Stage and follows the Cromerian Stage in the British Isles. It correlates to Marine Isotope Stage 12 (MIS 12), which started about 478,000 years ago and ended about 424,000 years ago. The Anglian stage has often been correlated to the Elsterian Stage of northern Continental Europe and
228-400: A hammerstone flint on the seabed 40 km (25 mi) off the coast of Cromer , Norfolk, from a depth of 32 m (105 ft), which could point to the existence of prehistoric settlements. An internationally significant early Middle Palaeolithic finds assemblage from the southern North Sea was also discovered through aggregate dredging off the coast of Norfolk. The cultural material
342-450: A British island' and Κεφ. γʹ Ἀλβουίωνος νήσου Βρεττανικῆς θέσις , Albouíōnos nḗsou Brettanikê̄s thésis , 'Ch. 3, position of Albion, a British island'. In Arabic geography and cartography in the medieval Islamic world , the British Isles are known as Jazāʾir Barṭāniya or Jazāʾir Barṭīniya . Arabic geographies, including the Kitāb az-Zīj of al-Battānī , mention
456-736: A Catholic king pushing for religious tolerance in opposition to a Protestant parliament in England. The king's army was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne and at the militarily crucial Battle of Aughrim in Ireland. Resistance held out, eventually forcing the guarantee of religious tolerance in the Treaty of Limerick . However, the terms were never honoured and a new monarchy was installed. The Kingdoms of England and Scotland were unified in 1707 creating
570-693: A channel through the anticline, leading to the formation of the Channel River , which carried the combined waters of the Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Thames to the Atlantic. This probably created the potential for Great Britain to become isolated from the continent during periods of high sea level, although some scientists argue that the final break did not occur until a second ice-dammed lake overflowed during
684-521: A complex geology that records a huge and varied span of Earth's history. Of particular note was the Caledonian orogeny during the Ordovician and early Silurian periods, when the craton Baltica collided with the terrane Avalonia to form the mountains and hills in northern Britain and Ireland. Baltica formed roughly the north-western half of Ireland and Scotland. Further collisions caused
798-586: A few prehistoric tools and weapons. Most archaeological evidence of human habitation dates to the Mesolithic period during the early Holocene. As of 2020 , international teams are continuing a two-year investigation into the submerged landscape of Doggerland using new and traditional archaeo-geophysical techniques, computer simulation , and molecular biology . Evidence gathered allows study of past environments, ecological change, and human transition from hunter-gatherer to farming communities. Until
912-492: A highland region that became submerged later than the rest of Doggerland. The archaeological potential of the area was first identified in the early 20th century, and interest intensified in 1931 when a fishing trawler operating east of the Wash dragged up a barbed antler point that was subsequently dated to a time when the area was tundra . Vessels have since dragged up remains of mammoths , lions and other animals, and
1026-406: A mild climate and varied soils, giving rise to a diverse pattern of vegetation. Animal and plant life is similar to that of the north-western European mainland . There are however, fewer numbers of species, with Ireland having even less. All native flora and fauna in Ireland is made up of species that migrated primarily from Great Britain. The only window when this could have occurred was prior to
1140-731: A number of unusual arrangements between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. For example, citizens of Northern Ireland are entitled to the choice of Irish or British citizenship or both, and the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom consult on matters not devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive . The Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland also meet as
1254-544: A problem until the 17th century. By the 18th century, most of Britain's forests were consumed for shipbuilding or manufacturing charcoal and the nation was forced to import lumber from Scandinavia, North America, and the Baltic. Most forest land in Ireland is maintained by state forestation programmes. Almost all land outside urban areas is farmland. However, relatively large areas of forest remain in east and north Scotland and in southeast England. Oak, elm, ash and beech are amongst
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#17327722671531368-517: A similar nature. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements, particularly along the east coast of Ireland, the west coast of modern-day Scotland and the Isle of Man. Though the Vikings were eventually neutralised in Ireland, their influence remained in the cities of Dublin , Cork , Limerick , Waterford and Wexford . England, however, was slowly conquered around
1482-599: A single political unit, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining as Crown Dependencies . The expansion of the British Empire and migrations following the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances resulted in the dispersal of some of the islands' population and culture throughout the world, and rapid depopulation of Ireland in the second half of
1596-594: A team at the University of Birmingham led by Vince Gaffney and Ken Thomson mapped around 23,000 km (8,900 sq mi) of the Early Holocene landscape, using seismic data provided for research by Petroleum Geo-Services , as part of the work of the University of Birmingham North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project. The results of this study were published as a technical monograph and a popular book on
1710-556: Is Loch Lomond at 27.5 square miles (71 km ), and Loch Ness (by volume) whilst Loch Morar is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles, with a maximum depth of 310 m (1,017 ft). There are a number of major rivers within the British Isles. The longest is the Shannon in Ireland at 224 mi (360 km). The river Severn at 220 mi (354 km) is the longest in Great Britain. The climate of
1824-682: Is a team chosen from each national team and undertakes tours of the Southern Hemisphere rugby-playing nations every four years. Ireland plays as a united team, represented by players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. These national rugby teams play each other each year for the Triple Crown as part of the Six Nations Championship . Also, since 2001, the professional club teams of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa compete against each other in
1938-570: Is also true for birds and insects. Notable exceptions include the Kerry slug and certain species of woodlouse native to Ireland but not Great Britain. Domestic animals include the Connemara pony, Shetland pony, English Mastiff, Irish wolfhound and many varieties of cattle and sheep. England has a generally high population density, with almost 80% of the total population of the islands. Elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland, high density of population
2052-788: Is limited to areas around a few large cities. The largest urban area by far is the Greater London Built-up Area with 9 million inhabitants. Other major population centres include the Greater Manchester Built-up Area (2.4 million), West Midlands conurbation (2.4 million) and West Yorkshire Urban Area (1.6 million) in England, Greater Glasgow (1.2 million) in Scotland and Greater Dublin Area (1.9 million) in Ireland. The population of England rose rapidly during
2166-525: The British Islands , not to be confused with the British Isles. The oldest rocks are 2.7 billion years old and are found in Ireland, Wales and the north-west of Scotland. During the Silurian period, the north-western regions collided with the south-east, which had been part of a separate continental landmass. The topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis ,
2280-721: The European beaver has been reintroduced in parts of Scotland. Wild boar have also been reintroduced to parts of southern England, following escapes from boar farms and illegal releases. Many rivers contain otters and grey and common seals are numerous on coasts. There are about 250 bird species regularly recorded in Great Britain, and another 350 that occur with varying degrees of rarity. The most numerous species are wren , robin , house sparrow , woodpigeon , chaffinch and blackbird . Farmland birds are declining in number, except for those kept for game such as pheasant , red-legged partridge , and red grouse . Fish are abundant in
2394-739: The Hook of Holland , rather than across the Strait of Dover. The Seine , the Thames, the Meuse , the Scheldt and the Rhine joined and flowed west along the English Channel as a wide slow river before eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean . In about 10,000 BCE the north-facing coastal area of Doggerland had a coastline of lagoons , saltmarshes , mudflats and beaches as well as inland streams, rivers, marshes and lakes. It may have been
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#17327722671532508-596: The Indo-European family . The Insular Celtic languages of the Goidelic sub-group ( Irish , Manx and Scottish Gaelic ) and the Brittonic sub-group ( Cornish , Welsh and Breton , spoken in north-western France ) are the only remaining Celtic languages —the last of their continental relations were extinct before the 7th century. The Norman languages of Guernésiais , Jèrriais and Sercquiais spoken in
2622-700: The Kingdom of Great Britain . Following an attempted republican revolution in Ireland in 1798 , the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain were unified in 1801 , creating the United Kingdom . The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remaining outside of the United Kingdom, but with their ultimate good governance being the responsibility of the British Crown (effectively the British government). Although
2736-655: The Late Middle Ages , Great Britain was separated into the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland, while control in Ireland fluxed between Gaelic kingdoms , Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland , soon restricted only to The Pale . The 1603 Union of the Crowns , Acts of Union 1707 and Acts of Union 1800 aimed to consolidate Great Britain and Ireland into
2850-689: The MIS 8 or MIS6 glaciations, around 340,000 or 240,000 years ago. Kim Cohen and Marc Hijma date the final destruction of the Weald–Artois Anticline to the severe Saalian Glaciation , which reached its peak around 160,000 years ago, and ended with a second meltwater lake around 130,000 years ago. During the most recent glaciation of the Last Glacial Maximum , the North Sea and much of the British Isles were covered with glacial ice, and
2964-780: The Mindel Stage in the Alps . The Anglian was the most extreme glaciation during the last two million years. In Britain the ice sheet reached the Isles of Scilly and the Western Approaches, the furthest south the ice reached in any Pleistocene ice age. In the south-east of England it diverted the River Thames from its old course through the Vale of St Albans south to its present position. This stage had been equated to
3078-673: The North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe , consisting of the islands of Great Britain , Ireland , the Isle of Man , the Inner and Outer Hebrides , the Northern Isles ( Orkney and Shetland ), and over six thousand smaller islands. They have a total area of 315,159 km (121,684 sq mi) and a combined population of almost 72 million, and include two sovereign states ,
3192-667: The North/South Ministerial Council to develop policies common across the island of Ireland. These arrangements were made following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement . Another body established under the Good Friday Agreement, the British–Irish Council, is made up of all of the states and territories of the British Isles. The British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly ( Irish : Tionól Pharlaiminteach na Breataine agus na hÉireann ) predates
3306-710: The Northern Ireland Assembly , the States of Jersey , the States of Guernsey and the High Court of Tynwald (Isle of Man). The Council does not have executive powers but meets biannually to discuss issues of mutual importance. Similarly, the Parliamentary Assembly has no legislative powers but investigates and collects witness evidence from the public on matters of mutual concern to its members. Reports on its findings are presented to
3420-525: The Quaternary Period , the most recent being the Devensian . As this ended, the central Irish Sea was deglaciated and the English Channel flooded, with sea levels rising to current levels some 8,000 years ago, leaving the British Isles in their current form. There are about 136 permanently inhabited islands in the group, the largest two being Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain is to
3534-537: The Republic of Ireland (which covers roughly five-sixths of Ireland), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . The Channel Islands , off the north coast of France , are normally taken to be part of the British Isles, even though geographically they do not form part of the archipelago . Under the UK Interpretation Act 1978, the Channel Islands are clarified as forming part of
Anglian stage - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-500: The Tusker Tunnel between the ports of Rosslare and Fishguard proposed by The Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004. A rail tunnel was proposed in 1997 on a different route, between Dublin and Holyhead , by British engineering firm Symonds. Either tunnel, at 50 mi (80 km), would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated £15 billion or €20 billion. A proposal in 2007, estimated
3762-626: The United Rugby Championship . The Ryder Cup in golf was originally played between a United States team and a team representing Great Britain and Ireland. From 1979 onwards, this was expanded to include the whole of Europe. London Heathrow Airport is Europe's busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, and the Dublin-London route is the busiest air route in Europe collectively, the busiest route out of Heathrow and
3876-521: The Variscan orogeny in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, forming the hills of Munster , south-west England, and southern Wales. Over the last 500 million years the land that forms the islands has drifted north-west from around 30°S, crossing the equator around 370 million years ago to reach its present northern latitude. The islands have been shaped by numerous glaciations during
3990-477: The "P" of Pretannia to the "B" of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar. Greco-Egyptian Claudius Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain (μεγάλη Βρεττανία megale Brettania ) and to Ireland as little Britain (μικρὰ Βρεττανία mikra Brettania ) in his work Almagest (147–148 AD). According to Philip Freeman in 2001, Ptolemy "is the only ancient writer to use
4104-485: The 19th and 20th centuries, whereas the populations of Scotland and Wales showed little increase during the 20th century; the population of Scotland has remained unchanged since 1951. Ireland for most of its history had much the same population density as Great Britain (about one-third of the total population). However, since the Great Irish Famine , the population of Ireland has fallen to less than one-tenth of
4218-541: The 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with six counties remaining in the UK as Northern Ireland. As a term, "British Isles" is a geographical name and not a political unit. In Ireland, the term is controversial , and there are objections to its usage. The Government of Ireland does not officially recognise
4332-413: The 5th century, and eventually they dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements and political change, particularly in England. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the later Angevin partial conquest of Ireland from 1169 led to the imposition of a new Norman ruling elite across much of Britain and parts of Ireland. By
4446-674: The Brettanic Isles as Brettanoi ". Strabo used Βρεττανική ( Brettanike ), and Marcian of Heraclea , in his Periplus maris exteri , used αἱ Πρεττανικαί νῆσοι ( the Prettanic Isles ) to refer to the islands. According to A. L. F. Rivet and Colin Smith in 1979 "the earliest instance of the name which is textually known to us" is in The Histories of Polybius , who referred to them as: αἱ Βρεταννικαί νήσοι , romanized : hai Bretannikai nēsoi , lit. 'the Brettanic Islands' or 'the British Isles'. According to Rivet and Smith, this name encompassed "Britain with Ireland". According to Thomas O'Loughlin in 2018,
4560-442: The British Isles is mild, moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. It is defined as a temperate oceanic climate, or Cfb on the Köppen climate classification system, a classification it shares with most of north-west Europe. The North Atlantic Drift ("Gulf Stream"), which flows from the Gulf of Mexico, brings with it significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C (20 °F) above
4674-407: The British Isles as twelve islands. John Skelton 's English translation of Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica , written in the middle 1480s, mentions the British Isles as the yles of Bretayne . Thomas Twyne 's English translation of Dionysius Periegetes 's Orbis descriptio , published in 1572, mentions the British Isles as the Iles of Britannia . The earliest citation of
Anglian stage - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-434: The British Isles was "a concept already present in the minds of those living in continental Europe since at least the 2nd–cent. CE". Historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί ( Priteni or Pretani ). The shift from
4902-445: The British Isles were repeatedly submerged beneath an ice sheet which extended into the middle of the North Sea, with a larger ice sheet that covered a significant proportion of Scandinavia on the opposite side. Around 1.9 million years ago these two ice sheets frequently merged, essentially creating a land bridge between Scandinavia and northern Great Britain. Further south, there was a direct land bridge, now known as Doggerland , which
5016-403: The British Isles, the most prominent of which is association football. While this is organised separately in different national associations, leagues and national teams, even within the UK, it is a common passion in all parts of the islands. Rugby union is also widely enjoyed across the islands with four national teams from England , Ireland , Scotland and Wales . The British and Irish Lions
5130-400: The British Isles: Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . Ireland, sometimes called the Republic of Ireland, governs five-sixths of the island of Ireland, with the remainder of the island forming Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually shortened to simply "the United Kingdom", which governs
5244-407: The British sense of citizenship proposed to end this arrangement, arguing that "the right to vote is one of the hallmarks of the political status of citizens; it is not a means of expressing closeness between countries". In addition, some civil bodies are organised throughout the islands as a whole—for example, the Samaritans , which is deliberately organised without regard to national boundaries on
5358-430: The British–Irish Council and was established in 1990. Originally it comprised 25 members of the Oireachtas , the Irish parliament, and 25 members of the parliament of the United Kingdom , with the purpose of building mutual understanding between members of both legislatures. Since then the role and scope of the body has been expanded to include representatives from the Scottish Parliament , the Senedd (Welsh Parliament),
5472-437: The British–Irish Council's work. The United Kingdom and Ireland have separate media, although British television, newspapers and magazines are widely available in Ireland, giving people in Ireland a high level of familiarity with the culture of the United Kingdom. Irish newspapers are also available in the UK, and Irish state and private television are widely available in Northern Ireland. Certain reality TV shows have embraced
5586-420: The Channel Islands are similar to French, a language also spoken there. A cant , called Shelta , is spoken by Irish Travellers , often to conceal meaning from those outside the group. However, English, including Scots , is the dominant language, with few monoglots remaining in the other languages of the region. The Norn language of Orkney and Shetland became extinct around 1880. 2.5 million years ago
5700-447: The Channel Islands to this day. A century later, the marriage of the future Henry II of England to Eleanor of Aquitaine created the Angevin Empire , partially under the French Crown . At the invitation of Diarmait Mac Murchada , a provincial king, and under the authority of Pope Adrian IV (the only Englishman to be elected pope), the Angevins invaded Ireland in 1169. Though initially intended to be kept as an independent kingdom,
5814-437: The Crown dependencies, any resident can vote in general elections, but in Jersey and the Isle of Man only British citizens can run for office. These pre-date European Union law, and in both jurisdictions go further than what was required by European Union law (EU citizens may only vote in local elections in both states and European elections in Ireland). In 2008, a UK Ministry of Justice report investigating how to strengthen
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#17327722671535928-410: The Crown of Ireland also. The subsequent 17th century was one of political upheaval, religious division and war. English colonialism in Ireland of the 16th century was extended by large-scale Scottish and English colonies in Ulster . Religious division heightened, and the king of England came into conflict with parliament over his tolerance towards Catholicism. The resulting English Civil War or War of
6042-404: The Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom. During the February 2008 meeting of the British–Irish Council, it was agreed to set up a standing secretariat that would serve as a permanent 'civil service' for the Council. Leading on from developments in the British–Irish Council, the chair of the British–Irish Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, Niall Blaney , has suggested that the body should shadow
6156-446: The Hiberni and Picts. In time, Anglo-Saxon demands on the British became so great that they came to culturally dominate the bulk of southern Great Britain, though recent genetic evidence suggests Britons still formed the bulk of the population. This dominance created what is now England and left culturally British enclaves only in the north of what is now England , in Cornwall and what is now known as Wales. Ireland had been unaffected by
6270-404: The Kansan Stage in North America . The stage names "Kansan", "Yarmouth", "Nebraskan" and "Aftonian" were later abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian stage. The Anglian Stage is now correlated with the period of time which includes the Pre-Illinoian B glaciation of North America. British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in
6384-407: The King of England from being vassal of the King of France . In 1534, King Henry VIII, at first having been a strong defender of Roman Catholicism in the face of the Reformation, separated from the Roman Church after failing to secure a divorce from the Pope. His response was to place the King of England as "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England ", thereby removing the authority of
6498-432: The Kingdoms of England and Scotland . Power in Ireland fluxed between Gaelic kingdoms , Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland . A similar situation existed in the Principality of Wales , which was slowly being annexed into the Kingdom of England by a series of laws. During the course of the 15th century, the Crown of England would assert a claim to the Crown of France, thereby also releasing
6612-438: The Pope from the affairs of the English Church. Ireland, which had been held by the King of England as Lord of Ireland, but which strictly speaking had been a feudal possession of the Pope since the Norman invasion was declared a separate kingdom in personal union with England. Scotland meanwhile had remained an independent Kingdom. In 1603, that changed when the King of Scotland inherited the Crown of England , and consequently
6726-454: The Roman Empire as far as the British Isles" (Greek: μέχρι τῶν Βρεττανικῶν νήσων , romanized: mékhri tôn Brettanikôn nḗsōn ), and remarks on the region "about the British Isles" ( τὸ περὶ τὰς Βρεττανικὰς νήσους , tò perì tàs Brettanikàs nḗsous ). According to Philip Freeman in 2001, "it seems reasonable, especially at this early point in classical knowledge of the Irish, for Diodorus or his sources to think of all inhabitants of
6840-452: The Romans except, significantly, for being Christianised —traditionally by the Romano-Briton, Saint Patrick. As Europe, including Britain, descended into turmoil following the collapse of Roman civilisation, an era known as the Dark Ages, Ireland entered a golden age and responded with missions (first to Great Britain and then to the continent), the founding of monasteries and universities. These were later joined by Anglo-Saxon missions of
6954-399: The Three Kingdoms led to a revolutionary republic in England. Ireland, largely Catholic, was mainly loyal to the king, but by military conquest was subsumed into the new republic. Following defeat to the parliament's army, large scale land distributions from loyalist Irish nobility to English commoners in the service of the parliamentary army created a new Ascendancy class which obliterated
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#17327722671537068-435: The UK as a whole. Ireland, the United Kingdom and the three Crown dependencies are all parliamentary democracies , with their own separate parliaments. All parts of the United Kingdom return Members of Parliament (MPs) to parliament in London . In addition to this, voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland return members to a devolved parliament in Edinburgh and in Cardiff and an assembly in Belfast . Governance in
7182-442: The UK or Ireland. The Mercury Music Prize is handed out every year to the best album from a British or Irish musician or group. Many globally popular sports had their modern rules codified in the British Isles, including golf, association football , cricket , rugby , snooker and darts, as well as many minor sports such as croquet , bowls , pitch and putt , water polo and handball . A number of sports are popular throughout
7296-399: The archaeological potential of the area. In 1931, the trawler Colinda hauled up a lump of peat whilst fishing near the Ower Bank, 40 km (25 mi) east of Norfolk . The peat was found to contain a barbed antler point, possibly used as a harpoon or fish spear, 220 mm (8.5 in) long, which dated from between 10,000 and 4,000 BCE when the area was tundra. Interest
7410-442: The area also suggest survival of land after the Storegga tsunami. The existence of what is now known as Doggerland was established in the late 19th century. The remains of plants brought to the surface from Dogger Bank were studied in 1913 by Clement Reid , and the remains of animals and worked flints from the Neolithic period had also been found. In his book The Antiquity of Man of 1915, anatomist Sir Arthur Keith discussed
7524-408: The basis that a service which is not political or religious should not recognise sectarian or political divisions. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity that operates a lifeboat service, is also organised throughout the islands as a whole, covering the waters of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The Northern Ireland peace process has led to
7638-443: The coast of Norway known as the Storegga Slide . This suggests "that the Storegga Slide tsunami would have had a catastrophic impact on the contemporary coastal Mesolithic population ... Britain finally became separated from the continent and in cultural terms, the Mesolithic there goes its own way." It is estimated that up to a quarter of the Mesolithic population of Britain lost their lives. A study published in 2014 suggested that
7752-418: The coast of Zeeland , and exhibited in Leiden in 2009. In March 2010, it was reported that recognition of the potential archaeological importance of the area could affect the future development of offshore wind farms . In 2019, a flint flake partially covered in birch bark tar dredged up off the coast of the Netherlands provided valuable insight into Neanderthal technology and cognitive evolution. In 2012
7866-452: The colonies of North America that would become the United States of America were lost by the start of the 19th century, the British Empire expanded rapidly elsewhere. A century later, it would cover one-third of the globe. Poverty in the United Kingdom remained desperate, however, and industrialisation in England led to terrible conditions for the working classes. Mass migrations following the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances resulted in
7980-451: The cost of building a bridge from County Antrim in Northern Ireland to Galloway in Scotland at £3.5bn (€5bn). British-Irish Isles, the (geography) see British Isles Doggerland Doggerland was an area of land in Northern Europe , now submerged beneath the southern North Sea . This region was repeatedly exposed at various times during the Pleistocene epoch due to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods , though
8094-424: The distribution of the islands' population and culture throughout the world and a rapid de-population of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with the six counties that formed Northern Ireland remaining as an autonomous region of the UK. There are two sovereign states in
8208-539: The earliest evidence of human activity on the island of Ireland dates from 12,500 years ago. At the time of the Roman Empire, about two thousand years ago, various tribes, which spoke Celtic dialects of the Insular Celtic group, were inhabiting the islands. The Romans expanded their civilisation to control southern Great Britain but were impeded in advancing any further, building Hadrian's Wall to mark
8322-602: The east and covers 83,700 sq mi (217,000 km ). Ireland is to the west and covers 32,590 sq mi (84,400 km ). The largest of the other islands are to be found in the Hebrides , Orkney and Shetland to the north, Anglesey and the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland, and the Channel Islands near the coast of France. The most densely populated island is Portsea Island , which has an area of 9.5 sq mi (25 km ) but has
8436-515: The end of the last glacial period of the current ice age , sea levels rose and the land began to tilt in an isostatic adjustment as the huge weight of ice lessened. Doggerland eventually became submerged, cutting off what was previously the British peninsula from the European mainland by around 6500 BCE. The Dogger Bank, an upland area of Doggerland, remained an island until at least 5000 BCE. Key stages are now believed to have included
8550-477: The failure of the Irish High King to ensure the terms of the Treaty of Windsor led Henry II, as King of England, to rule as effective monarch under the title of Lord of Ireland . This title was granted to his younger son, but when Henry's heir unexpectedly died, the title of King of England and Lord of Ireland became entwined in one person. By the Late Middle Ages , Great Britain was separated into
8664-545: The global average for the islands' latitudes. Most Atlantic depressions pass to the north of the islands; combined with the general westerly circulation and interactions with the landmass, this imposes a general east–west variation in climate. There are four distinct climate patterns: south-east, with cold winters, warm and dry summers; south-west, having mild and very wet winters, warm and wet summers; north-west, generally wet with mild winters and cool summers; and north-east with cold winters, cool summers. The islands enjoy
8778-403: The gradual evolution of a large tidal bay between eastern England and Dogger Bank by 9000 BCE and a rapid sea level rise thereafter, leading to Dogger Bank becoming an island and Britain becoming physically disconnected from the continent. A recent hypothesis suggests that around 6200 BCE much of the remaining coastal land was flooded by a tsunami caused by a submarine landslide off
8892-400: The highest mountain, rises to only 1,345 metres (4,413 ft), and Lough Neagh , which is notably larger than other lakes in the island group, covers 390 square kilometres (151 sq mi). The climate is temperate marine, with cool winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C (20 °F) above the global average for
9006-480: The highest point on the islands at 1,345 m (4,413 ft). Other mountainous areas include Wales and parts of Ireland, although only seven peaks in these areas reach above 1,000 m (3,281 ft). Lakes on the islands are generally not large, although Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is an exception, covering 150 square miles (390 km ). The largest freshwater body in Great Britain (by area)
9120-486: The history and archaeology of Doggerland. Names have been given to some of its features: "The Spines" to a system of dunes above the broad "Shotton River", the upland area of the "Dogger Bank", a basin between two huge sandbanks called "The Outer Silver Pit". A skull fragment of a Neanderthal , dated at over 40,000 years old, was recovered from material dredged from the Middeldiep, some 16 km (10 mi) off
9234-717: The island of Ireland. This area required formal recognition in 1997 during the course of negotiations for the Amsterdam Treaty of the European Union, and (together with the Crown dependencies) is now known as the Common Travel Area . As such, Ireland is not part of the Schengen Area , which allows passport-free travel between most EU member states, and is the only member state with an opt-out from
9348-441: The last few years that we have been able to re-create what this lost land looked like ... We have now been able to model its flora and fauna, build up a picture of the ancient people that lived there and begin to understand some of the dramatic events that subsequently changed the land, including the sea rising and a devastating tsunami. Since 2015, the University of Bradford 's Europe's Lost Frontiers project has continued mapping
9462-440: The latitude. This led to a landscape that was long dominated by temperate rainforest, although human activity has since cleared the vast majority of forest cover . The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation , by 12,000 BC, when Great Britain was still part of a peninsula of the European continent . Ireland may have been connected to Great Britain by way of an ice bridge before 14,000 BC, and
9576-450: The melting of the ice bridge between the two islands 14,000 years ago approaching the end of the last ice age. As with most of Europe, prehistoric Britain and Ireland were covered with forest and swamp. Clearing began around 6000 BC and accelerated in medieval times. Despite this, Britain retained its primeval forests longer than most of Europe due to a small population and later development of trade and industry, and wood shortages were not
9690-724: The middle Pleistocene , Great Britain was a peninsula of Europe, connected by the massive chalk Weald–Artois Anticline across the Strait of Dover . During the Anglian glaciation , about 450,000 years ago, an ice sheet filled much of the North Sea , with a large proglacial lake in the southern part fed by the Rhine , the Scheldt and the Thames . The catastrophic overflow of this lake carved
9804-664: The most common trees in England. In Scotland, pine and birch are most common. Natural forests in Ireland are mainly oak, ash, wych elm , birch and pine. Beech and lime , though not native to Ireland, are also common there. Farmland hosts a variety of semi-natural vegetation of grasses and flowering plants. Woods, hedgerows , mountain slopes and marshes host heather , wild grasses, gorse and bracken . Many larger animals, such as wolves, bears and European elk are today extinct. However, some species such as red deer are protected. Other small mammals, such as rabbits , foxes , badgers , hares , hedgehogs , and stoats , are very common and
9918-533: The name "Little Britain" for Ireland, though in doing so he is well within the tradition of earlier authors who pair a smaller Ireland with a larger Britain as the two Brettanic Isles". In the second book of Ptolemy's Geography ( c. 150 AD ), the second and third chapters are respectively titled in Greek: Κεφ. βʹ Ἰουερνίας νήσου Βρεττανικῆς θέσις , romanized: Iouernías nḗsou Brettanikê̄s thésis , lit. 'Ch. 2, position of Hibernia,
10032-464: The norm is by majority rule; however, Northern Ireland uses a system of power sharing whereby unionists and nationalists share executive posts proportionately and where the assent of both groups is required for the Northern Ireland Assembly to make certain decisions. (In the context of Northern Ireland, unionists are those who want Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom and nationalists are those who want Northern Ireland to join with
10146-464: The northern frontier of their empire in 122 AD. At that time, Ireland was populated by a people known as Hiberni, the northern third or so of Great Britain by a people known as Picts and the southern two thirds by Britons. Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century AD . Initially, their arrival seems to have been at the invitation of the Britons as mercenaries to repulse incursions by
10260-758: The obligation to join the Schengen Zone. Reciprocal arrangements allow British and Irish citizens specific voting rights in the two states. In Ireland, British citizens can vote in General and local elections, but not in European Parliament elections, constitutional referendums or presidential elections (for which there is no comparable franchise in the United Kingdom). In the United Kingdom, Irish and Commonwealth citizens can vote in every election for which British citizens are eligible. In
10374-768: The only remaining parts of Doggerland at the time of the Storegga Slide were low-lying islands, but supported the view that the area had been abandoned at about the same time as the tsunamis. Another view speculates that the Storegga tsunami devastated Doggerland, but then ebbed back into the sea, and that later Lake Agassiz (in North America) burst, releasing so much fresh water that sea levels rose over about two years to flood much of Doggerland and make Great Britain an island. The difference in distribution of broken shells between lower-lying and high-lying parts of
10488-565: The phrase Brytish Iles in the Oxford English Dictionary is in a work by John Dee dated 1577. Other names used to describe the islands include the Anglo-Celtic Isles , Atlantic archipelago (a term coined by the historian J. G. A. Pocock in 1975 ), British-Irish Isles , Britain and Ireland , UK and Ireland , and British Isles and Ireland . Owing to political and national associations with
10602-512: The population of the British Isles. The famine caused a century-long population decline, drastically reduced the Irish population and permanently altered the demographic make-up of the British Isles. On a global scale, this disaster led to the creation of an Irish diaspora that numbers fifteen times the current population of the island. The linguistic heritage of the British Isles is rich, with twelve languages from six groups across four branches of
10716-443: The prehistoric landscapes of Doggerland and has used this data to direct a programme of extensive coring of marine palaeochannels. Sediment from the cores has provided sedimentary DNA as well as conventional environmental data and these will be used in a major computational modelling programme replicating colonisation of the submerged landscape. In 2019, a team of scientists from the University of Bradford and Ghent University found
10830-469: The remainder of the archipelago with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The Isle of Man and the two Bailiwicks of the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey , are known as the Crown Dependencies . They exercise constitutional rights of self-government and judicial independence; responsibility for international representation rests largely with the UK (in consultation with
10944-447: The remnants of Old English (Hiberno-Norman) and Gaelic Irish nobility in Ireland. The new ruling class was Protestant and English, whilst the populace was largely Catholic and Irish. This theme would influence Irish politics for centuries to come. When the monarchy was restored in England, the king found it politically impossible to restore the lands of former landowners in Ireland. The " Glorious Revolution " of 1688 repeated similar themes:
11058-631: The respective governments); and responsibility for defence is reserved by the UK. The United Kingdom is made up of four constituent parts : England, Scotland and Wales, forming Great Britain, and Northern Ireland in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Of these, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved governments, meaning that each has its own parliament or assembly and is self-governing with respect to certain matters set down by law. For judicial purposes, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England and Wales (the latter being one entity) form separate legal jurisdictions, with there being no single law for
11172-585: The rest of Ireland.) The British monarch is the head of state of the United Kingdom, while in the Republic of Ireland the head of state is the President of Ireland . Ireland is the only part of the isles that is a member state of the European Union (EU). The UK was a member between 1 January 1973 and 31 January 2020, but the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands were not. Since the partition of Ireland , an informal free-travel area has existed across
11286-536: The results of study of Doggerland by the universities of Birmingham, St Andrews , Dundee , and Aberdeen , including surveys of artefacts, were displayed at the Royal Society summer exhibition in London. Richard Bates of St Andrews University said: We have speculated for years on the lost land's existence from bones dredged by fishermen all over the North Sea, but it's only since working with oil companies in
11400-681: The richest hunting, fowling and fishing ground in Europe in the Mesolithic period. One large river system found by a 3D seismic survey, undertaken by the Birmingham "North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project", drained the southeastern part of the Dogger Bank hill area into the east end of the Outer Silver Pit lake. It has been named the Shotton River after the Birmingham geologist Frederick William Shotton . As ice melted at
11514-668: The rivers and lakes, in particular salmon, trout, perch and pike . Sea fish include dogfish , cod, sole , pollock and bass, as well as mussels, crab and oysters along the coast. There are more than 21,000 species of insects. Few species of reptiles or amphibians are found in Great Britain or Ireland. Only three snakes are native to Great Britain: the adder , the barred grass snake and the smooth snake ; none are native to Ireland. In general, Great Britain has slightly more variation and native wildlife, with weasels, polecats , wildcats, most shrews , moles , water voles , roe deer and common toads also being absent from Ireland. This pattern
11628-563: The sea level was about 120 m (390 ft) lower. The climate later became warmer, and around 12,000 BCE, Great Britain, as well as much of the North Sea and the English Channel, was an expanse of low-lying tundra . Evidence, including the contours of the present seabed, indicates that after the first main Ice Age the watershed between the North Sea and the English Channel extended east from East Anglia, then southeast to
11742-516: The second-busiest international air route in the world. The English Channel and the southern North Sea are the busiest seaways in the world. The Channel Tunnel , opened in 1994, links Great Britain to France and is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world. The idea of building a tunnel under the Irish Sea has been raised since 1895, when it was first investigated. Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently
11856-721: The term "Doggerland" is generally specifically used for this region during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene . During the early Holocene following the glacial retreat at the end of the Last Glacial Period , the exposed land area of Doggerland stretched across the region between what is now the east coast of Great Britain, the Netherlands , the western coast of Germany , and the Danish peninsula of Jutland . Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, Doggerland
11970-480: The term, and its embassy in London discourages its use. "Britain and Ireland" is used as an alternative description, and "Atlantic Archipelago" has also seen limited use in academia. In official documents created jointly by Ireland and the United Kingdom, such as the Good Friday Agreement , the term "these islands" is used. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in
12084-537: The third highest population behind Great Britain and Ireland. The islands are at relatively low altitudes, with central Ireland and southern Great Britain particularly low-lying: the lowest point in the islands is the North Slob in County Wexford , Ireland, with an elevation of −3.0 metres (−9.8 ft). The Scottish Highlands in the northern part of Great Britain are mountainous, with Ben Nevis being
12198-628: The turn of the first millennium AD, and eventually became a feudal possession of Denmark . The relations between the descendants of Vikings in England and counterparts in Normandy , in northern France, lay at the heart of a series of events that led to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 . The remnants of the Duchy of Normandy , which conquered England, remain associated to the English Crown as
12312-524: The whole of the islands, for example The X Factor , seasons 3, 4 and 7 of which featured auditions in Dublin and were open to Irish voters, whilst the show previously known as Britain's Next Top Model became Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model in 2011. A few cultural events are organised for the island group as a whole. For example, the Costa Book Awards are awarded to authors resident in
12426-426: The word British , the Government of Ireland does not use the term British Isles and in documents drawn up jointly between the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is referred to simply as "these islands". British Isles is the most widely accepted term for the archipelago. The British Isles lie at the juncture of several regions with past episodes of tectonic mountain building. These orogenic belts form
12540-657: The writings of seafarers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia . The original records have been lost; however, later writings, e.g. Avienius 's Ora maritima , that quoted from the Massaliote Periplus (6th century BC) and from Pytheas 's On the Ocean (around 325–320 BC) have survived. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos , "the British Island", and Prettanoi , "the Britons", describes Julius Caesar as having "advanced
12654-459: Was gradually submerged as sea levels rose. However, the Irish Sea was formed before Doggerland was completely covered in water, with Ireland becoming an island roughly 6,000 years before Great Britain did. The first evidence of human activity on the islands dates from 840,000 or 950,000 years ago, based in flint tools found near Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast of Great Britain. In contrast,
12768-630: Was inundated by rising sea levels, disintegrating initially into a series of low-lying islands before submerging completely. The impact of the tsunami generated by the Storegga underwater landslide c. 8200 years ago on Doggerland is controversial. The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral. Doggerland was named after the Dogger Bank (which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers ), which formed
12882-462: Was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 7000 BC with the flooding of Doggerland . The Gaels (Ireland), Picts (northern Great Britain) and Britons (southern Great Britain), all speaking Insular Celtic languages , inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Much of Brittonic-occupied Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD 43. The first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in
12996-482: Was reinvigorated in the 1990s by Bryony Coles , who named the area "Doggerland" "after the great banks in the southern North Sea" – and produced speculative maps of the area. Although she recognised that the current relief of the southern North Sea seabed is not a sound guide to the topography of Doggerland, this topography has more recently begun to be reconstructed more authoritatively using seismic survey data obtained from oil exploration. Between 2003 and 2007,
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