There is something incredibly attractive about the land that appears on the horizon in the middle of the endless ocean. The islands, surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of water, always give rise to fantasies of treasures, great secrets and new discoveries in the head.
The history of the inhabitants of distant islands is also no less interesting and original, because for centuries these civilizations have developed in deep interconnection with the world around them and in conditions of almost complete isolation from other cultures and peoples.
It sounds incredible, but today explorers are still able to experience the thrilling feeling of touching new lands, like Christopher Columbus, and there is much more to come.
Rockall
Rockall can hardly be called an island in the usual sense for us, because it is not so much land as a granite rock covered with bird droppings. Rising 18 meters above the water, it is formally the westernmost point of Great Britain. Rockall is 465 kilometers off the coast of England and 710 kilometers from Iceland.
Photo: Andy Strangeway
Despite its remote location, this volcanic islet was known even to the northern peoples of antiquity, and they called it Rocal, which roughly translates as "windy bald head". The name seems appropriate for such an isolated and uninhabited place. The British politician Lord Kennet once said about Rockall the following: “There is no place more desolate, full of despair and horror”.
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At one time the Celts nicknamed this rock Rocabarraigh. In Scottish mythology, Rockabarreich was considered a special stone, which was destined to appear above the surface of the water only 3 times in the history of mankind, and was last associated with the end of the world.
In 1955, when World War III and the threat of atomic disaster were on everyone's lips, Rockall was first officially declared an island belonging to the British Crown. This was done to avoid using the lonely rock as a Soviet observatory from which enemy intelligence could watch the launch of British nuclear missiles in the North Atlantic.
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen is a large island located approximately halfway between Norway and Greenland, 595 kilometers north of Iceland. This land consists of 2 parts - the southern tip and the larger northern one, which are interconnected by a narrow isthmus.
Photo: Dreizung
Jan Mayen is an island of volcanic origin, and the most remarkable detail of the overall landscape is the conical summit of the Beerenberg volcano. For the first time, this place was discovered by Scandinavian sailors, who said that from the coast of Iceland to this harsh land 2 days of sailing.
Northern sailors nicknamed the island Svalbaro (cold coast). At the end of the Viking era, Norwegians and Icelanders almost stopped conquering the sea horizons, and the island was forgotten for many centuries. Jan Mayen has a complicated history of rediscovery. It is reliably known that this land was again discovered in the summer of 1614 by 3 different expeditions. At the same time, the island received its final name, in which Jan is the name of the Danish whaling captain who landed on this land in May 1614. Subsequently, Jan Mayen became such a popular bay among Danish whale hunters that they even established their temporary camp here. … Thousands of whales died at the hands of people in the vicinity of the island, which led to the almost complete extinction of some local species.
In 1634, 7 Danish hunters first tried to spend the winter on the island for several months. They all died of scurvy and other diseases caused by the constant feeding on raw polar bear meat.
After several years of uncontrolled whale extermination, these sea creatures were forced to leave the waters around Jan Mayen to find a safer place to live. Following the whales, the Danes also left the island, and this place again became wild and uninhabited.
In the 20th century, this land became part of Norway, and today an extremely small number of people have access here, including mainly scientists and the Norwegian military.
Little Dimun
Litla Dimun is one of the smallest islands in the Faroe archipelago. It has the shape of a truncated cylindrical cone, and the entire southern part of this land is surrounded by sheer cliffs, to which it is almost impossible to moor.
Photo: Erik Christensen
The inaccessibility of this islet is perhaps the main reason why this place has never been inhabited by people, which makes it quite unique in the North Atlantic Ocean region. However, during the Neolithic era, sheep grazed here, as evidenced by their ancient remains.
Until the 19th century, Litla Dimun was a pasture for wild sheep descended from Faroese artiodactyls from the time of the first settlers in Northern Europe. The breed of these mammals resembled animals, whose bones were found on other isolated islands off the coast of Scotland. This species of wild goat became extinct long ago, and today only modern Faroese goats graze on the windy slopes.
In autumn, local peasants moor to Litla-Dimun to visit wild herds, slaughter the required number of livestock for food, and shave some of them. All sheep are herded to the northern lands of the island, where they are gathered together, their legs are tied, and then in nets they are lowered into a boat that delivers the animals to the mainland. For the winter, the sheep are locked up in barns so that the selected livestock will survive the harshest times of the year in safe conditions.
Fula
Foula is part of the Shetland Islands, and is considered one of the most remote and sparsely populated places in Europe. Despite the fact that 38 people live here, the island has a very long history, tracing back to the third millennium BC.
Photo: Dr. Julian paren
A stone of an unusual round shape, discovered in the northern part of the island, has long occupied the minds of archaeologists, who eventually confirmed that it was installed here 1000 years before the birth of Christ. The cobblestone resembles an ellipse rather than a ball, and its axis is located in accordance with the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation during the winter solstice, which suggests thoughts about its connection with religious rituals.
The modern population of Fula has retained the identity of the isolated island culture with Nordic elements. Even the name of this place, like most of the other Shetland islands, has its origins in the language of the Normans (an ancient northern people) who conquered and populated this region during the Viking Age.
Locals still follow the Julian calendar and celebrate Christmas on January 6, unlike the rest of Scandinavia, which celebrates this Christian celebration at the end of December. On Fula, it is customary to spend Christmas Eve first at home with the family, and its completion is always marked by a general gathering in one place.
Fula Island is one of the last places where the now extinct Norn language was used daily and was a spoken language. Norn is an Old Norse language, and the inhabitants of the northern islands spoke it until the end of the 18th century. It began to die out only after the Norwegian Crown granted Scotland the rights to the northern islands at the end of the 15th century.
St Kilda
St. Kilda is a small group of islands located far to the west of the coast of Scotland. Hirta is the largest island in this archipelago and the only inhabited piece of land in the area. St Kilda is deservedly considered the most famous land mass among the rest of the Scottish islands, and all thanks to its remoteness, history and stunning scenery.
Photo: Otter
The archipelago is impressive with steep rocky slopes that rise 30 meters above the water of the North Atlantic. Hirta is available for disembarkation on its coast in only a few places, and even those are not so easy to get to - ideal weather conditions are required for this.
For nearly 2,000 years, northern peoples lived on the St Kilda Islands, as evidenced by the artifacts found here, some of which date back to the early Stone Age. There are suggestions that the ancient Scandinavians sailed to the northern archipelago and assimilated with the island civilization back in the Viking Age. In support of this theory, examples are given of several place names of Nordic origin, which have long denoted objects on the islands of St. Kilda.
The main feature of the culture of St. Kilda has always been absolute self-sufficiency, and the isolation of the inhabitants of this land from the rest of the world has greatly influenced their mentality. The islands were so remote that the locals for a long time adhered to a religion that combined both Celtic druidism and Christianity. Druidic altars were very widespread here until the 18th century, despite many attempts by missionaries to accustom the inhabitants of the archipelago to a purer form of Christianity.
The true proof of the islanders' disinterest in what goes on outside their home was an incident in the 18th century. Once upon a time, soldiers arrived looking for the missing Prince Charles Edward Stuart, heir to the British throne, and the islanders had no idea who he was. Moreover, they had never even heard of their own king, George II. Visitors were shocked by this incredible ignorance of isolated peoples.
Draungay
Drangey is an island located in Skagafjorour in northern Iceland. Most of all, this piece of land is famous for its prehistoric volcano, which over 700,000 years collapsed so that it turned into a real island fortress with steep rocky cliffs. Due to the severity of the relief, Draungi can only be reached via one single route, and nothing else.
Photo: Icelandic Times
In the 11th century, Icelandic folk hero Grettir the Strong landed on this island with his brother and a slave, and together they lived in an unfriendly land for several years. The reason for this resettlement was the expulsion of Grettir from Iceland, which was considered one of the most severe punishments of the Viking Age.
As the story goes, when the exiles had their fire extinguished and had nothing else to light, Grettir set out to find the source of the fire outside the island. The heroes no longer had a boat, so Grettir himself sailed 6 kilometers across the open ocean to the coast of the mainland. He was about to procure flames from a place called Reykir, but was eventually killed by his enemies, who found him dying of infection.
Draugnei is home to millions of seabirds, which were previously hunted here by about 200 farmers from the surrounding settlements every summer. For several months, birders managed to kill up to 200,000 birds, and this was considered a good catch for the hunting season.
People hunted birds using a floating trap, which they made from three rafts or boats tied together. The structure was covered with a net with horsehair loops. In these floating snares, prey was usually entangled. This practice has long been a fairly common method of hunting in Iceland, but later it was recognized as inhumane, because the rafts often swam far out to sea, and the birds stuck in them died of hunger after drifting for many days far from their nests.
Surtsey
Surtsey is an islet located off the south coast of Iceland. It is the youngest formation in the Vestmannaeyjar volcanic archipelago, and grew out of the sea on November 14, 1963, as a result of a volcanic eruption that began under the sea water.
Photo: NOAA
The eruption lasted 4 years and produced an island with an area of 2.6 square kilometers. Over the past decades, erosion has destroyed Surtsey so much that it has become 2 times smaller than its original size. The island is of great interest for scientists from a number of scientific fields, because it is so convenient to observe the processes of the formation of a new form of relief and the origin of life, which took place on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Geologists and biologists often come here for research, and access to this land is strictly limited for ordinary civilian visitors.
In Iceland, new islands of the same morphology often appear now, but they are still too young and barely visible above the water, and many of them are destroyed too quickly and again sink to the bottom of the ocean. The fragility of these formations is explained by the fact that they are a mixture of sandbank with volcanic gravel, which forms when hot lava comes into contact with cold ocean water. However, the eruption that gave rise to Surtsey was special because it reached its final stage when the water no longer had access to volcanic vents, and magma was spreading along the dry slopes.
The island has managed to develop its own flora, and now it is covered with moss. Birds quickly settled in Surtsey, and in 1998 even the first bushes appeared here.
In 1977, scientists were seriously puzzled by the appearance of potato sprouts on a dormant volcano. Researchers soon found out that this plant culture was planted in secret for a prank, and it was the work of teenagers from a neighboring island. Another embarrassment happened when tomatoes appeared on Surtsey. As it turned out, a tomato sprout grew from seeds brought to volcanic land through the excrement of one of the scientists, who did not endure a more civilized toilet. Seedlings of tomatoes and potatoes were carefully removed, and the responsible parties were reprimanded for introducing foreign crops on virgin soil.
Svalbard
Svalbard is a permafrost archipelago in the far north of the Arctic Circle and the northernmost permanent settlement on the planet. Another name for this place is Svalbard or Spitsbergen, and it refers to the territory of Norway, although one of the largest islands of the archipelago also has a whole settlement of Russian miners.
Norway's relationship with the archipelago is somewhat atypical. Officially, this zone is considered demilitarized, and any foreign government that has signed the Svalbard Treaty can extract minerals on its territory. By the beginning of 2016, 45 parties had already participated in the signing of such an agreement.
Glaciers cover 60% of the entire area of Svalbard, and during the winter, the polar night reigns here. In Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in the archipelago, the polar night lasts from October 26 to February 15. This is almost 3.5-4 months of darkness.
There is no developed road system on the island, and only rare similarities of snow-covered trails are laid between cities and mines. Snowmobiles are the main mode of transport on the islands, especially in winter.
Traveling outside the cities can be very dangerous because Svalbard is home to a large colony of polar bears. Anyone who leaves the settlements is required to carry appropriate equipment, and local authorities strongly recommend carrying firearms with them so that they can ward off a powerful predator on occasion.
Svalbard may sound like a paradise for naturalists and gun enthusiasts, but it's almost impossible to move here unless you've been hired by an Icelandic company. Most of the houses and buildings on the islands are owned by private corporations who rent out properties to local workers.
Flannan
The Flannan Isles are a group of 7 small coastal islands in Scotland. Their total area is only 588 thousand square meters. People have left these places since the lighthouse of the largest island, Eilean Mor, was fully automated.
Photo: JJM
The small size of the Flannan Archipelago and its relative distance from the mainland have long been the reason for its uninhabitedness. However, the ruins of a chapel, several shelters and other objects prove that these places were once inhabited by a hermit community of monks.
At the end of the 19th century, a 23-meter lighthouse was built on Eileen Mor Island, and in 1900 the archipelago became the site of the famous story about the mysterious disappearance of all 3 caretakers of the navigation tower. They disappeared simultaneously and completely without a trace.
All three men disappeared on the day of a violent storm that destroyed one of the two local berths and severely damaged the settlement's navigational equipment and infrastructure. On one of the cliffs, the turf was torn apart at a height of 61 meters - so high and powerful were the waves breaking on the slopes of the island. The disappearance of the caretakers attracted close attention of the British public to the archipelago and gave rise to many of the most incredible theories.
The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the 3 men seemed very strange, considering that the inside of the lighthouse was completely orderly, with the exception of one overturned chair in the kitchen. All the gates and doors were locked, the flag was lowered, the beds were not made, and all the clocks had stopped. According to the rules of the Lighthouse Administration of Scotland, the tower should under no circumstances be completely unattended, but for some reason all 3 station employees disappeared at once. Another strange detail was that one set of storm clothing remained inside the lighthouse. It turns out that one of the caretakers was in such a hurry to get out that he had no time for the right equipment, corresponding to the terrible weather?
The mystery of the disappearance of the keepers still remains unsolved, but the main version of the authorities is that all the workers of the lighthouse were simply washed into the sea.
Rona
The island of Rona is often called the North Rhone to distinguish it from another Scottish island of the same name. It is a northern patch of land, washed by the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and so isolated and remote that it is often forgotten to map Britain. Over the past 1,500 years, Rona has been abandoned and left completely uninhabited for a long time. At the same time, no more than 30 people lived here.
Photo: john m. macfarlane
Before the Viking Age, the Rhone was supposedly a haven for Christian hermits. Subsequently, most of the local islands were captured by the Vikings and ruled by the Norwegian monarchs for several centuries. The presence of ancient Scandinavian peoples on this land has not yet been reliably proven, although the very name "Rona" is probably of Norse origin.
Saint Ronan settled here in the 8th century AD. It was said that it was he who built a small Christian prayer house, which still stands in its place. Archaeologists believe that this is the oldest Christian structure in all of Scotland, preserved to this day.
The most curious tourists are allowed to crawl into a small, half-flooded structure made of earth and rough rock, and inside, in the corner of the chapel, you can see an ancient stone cross. Such artifacts best of all shed light on how the monks lived, who voluntarily chose the harsh Rona as their place of hermitage a whole millennium ago.