Kingdom of The Isles - Geography

Geography

The principal islands under consideration are as follows:

• The Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea equidistant from modern England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• The islands of the Firth of Clyde some 140 kilometres (87 mi) to the north, the largest of which are Bute and Arran.
• The southern Inner Hebrides to the west and north of the Kintyre peninsula, including Islay, Jura, Mull and Iona.
• The Inner Hebrides to the north of Ardnamurchan, made up of the Small Isles (including Eigg and Rùm), Skye, Raasay and their outliers.
• The Outer Hebrides, aka the "Long Island" to the west, separated from the northern Inner Hebrides by the waters of The Minch.

These islands, often referred to as the Sudreys, have a total land area of approximately 8,374 square kilometres (3,233 sq mi) of which:

• the Isle of Man is 572 square kilometres (221 sq mi), 7% of the total
• the Islands of the Clyde 574 square kilometres (222 sq mi), 7% of the total
• the Inner Hebrides 4,158 square kilometres (1,605 sq mi), 50% of the total and
• the Outer Hebrides 3,070 square kilometres (1,185 sq mi), 36% of the total.

Anglesey in modern Wales may also have been part of the insular Viking world from an early stage.

Orkney is some 180 kilometres (110 mi) east-northeast of the Outer Hebrides, Shetland is a further 80 kilometres (50 mi) further northeast and Norway some 300 kilometres (190 mi) due east of Shetland. The total distance from the southern tip of the Isle of Man to the Butt of Lewis, the northern extremity of the Outer Hebrides, is approximately 515 kilometres (320 mi).