Map of the Inner and Outer Hebrides

This is a list of the islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is that it is 'land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways'.^[1]

Scotland has over 790 offshore islands, most of which are to be found in four main groups: Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, sub-divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides.^[2] There are also clusters of islands in the Firth of Clyde, Firth of Forth, and Solway Firth, and numerous small islands within the many bodies of freshwater in Scotland including Loch Lomond and Loch Maree.

Many of these islands are swept by strong tides, and the Corryvreckan tide race between Scarba and Jura is one of the largest whirlpools in the world. Other strong tides are to be found in the Pentland Firth between mainland Scotland and Orkney, and the Grey Dog between Scarba and Lunga.^[2] The geology and geomorphology of the islands is quite varied. Some such as Skye and Mull are mountainous whilst others like Tiree and Sanday are relatively low lying. Many have bedrock made from ancient Archaen Lewisian Gneiss which was originally laid down 3 billion years ago, Shapinsay and other Orkney islands are formed from Old Red Sandstone, which is 400 million years old, and others such as Rùm from more recent Tertiary volcanoes^[3]

The largest island is Lewis and Harris which extends to 2,179 square kilometres, and there are a further 200 islands which are greater than 40 hectares in area. Of the remainder, several such as Staffa and the Flannan Isles have achieved considerable notability despite their small size.^[2]

Some 97 Scottish islands are populated, of which 92 are offshore islands. Many previously inhabited islands such as Mingulay, Noss and the St Kilda archipelago have been abandoned during the course of the past century and today only 14 islands are populated by over 1,000 people and 45 by over 100. Between 1991 and 2001, the population of the islands fell by 3 per cent overall, although there were 35 islands whose population increased. The total population of all the islands in 2001 was 99,739.^[4]

The culture of the islands has been affected by the successive influences of Celtic, Norse and English speaking peoples and this is reflected in names given to the islands. Most of the Hebrides have Scots Gaelic derivations, whilst those of the Northern Isles tend to be derived from the Viking names. A few have Brythonic, Scots and even perhaps pre-Celtic roots.^[2] A feature of modern island life is the low crime rate and they are considered to be amongst the safest places to live in the UK.^[5]

Rockall, is a small rocky islet in the North Atlantic which was declared part of Scotland by the Island of Rockall Act 1972.^[6][7] However, the legality of the claim is disputed by the Republic of Ireland, Denmark and Iceland and it is probably unenforceable in international law.^[8][9]

Eilean Donan castle

Larger islands

This is a list of Scottish islands either with an area greater than 40 hectares (approximately 100 acres) and/or which are inhabited. The 'Groups' which in many cases provide a more useful guide to location than local authority areas are after Haswell-Smith (2004). The main Groups are: Firth of Clyde, Islay, Firth of Lorn, Mull, Small Isles, Skye, Lewis and Harris, Uists and Barra, St Kilda, Orkney, Shetland and Firth of Forth. In a few cases where the island is either part of recognisable smaller group or archipelago, or is located away from the main groups, an archipelago, local authority or other descriptive name is used instead. "F" designates a freshwater island.

Orkney aerial photomap

The Shetland archipelago

Bressay Lighthouse at Kirkabister Ness, Shetland

The Old Man of Hoy, Orkney, a 137 metre (450 ft) sea stack of red sandstone

Tobermory harbour, Isle of Mull

The cliffs of Creag na Bruaich, Raasay

'Dhu Heartach Lighthouse, During Construction' by Sam Bough (1822-1878).

Fingal's Cave, Staffa

Kisimul Castle, Barra

Ailsa Craig from the South Ayrshire coast

Iona Abbey

Shiant Isles

Muckle Flugga lighthouse, Shetland

Two of the Paps of Jura. Photo by John Shaw

The Earl's Palace, Birsay, Orkney

The cliffs of Eshaness, North Mainland, Shetland

The Bass Rock from Tantallon Castle

MV Isle of Lewis in The Minch

Sula Sgeir from the South West.

Stornoway harbour, Lewis

Fair Isle cliffs

Callanish Standing Stones, Lewis

Machair at Balephuil Bay, Tiree

The east coast of Mousa towards the Peerie Bard.

Loch Lomond from Beinn Dubh and Creag an t-Seilich

Freshwater islands

Main article: List of fresh water islands in Scotland

There are numerous other freshwater islands, of which the more notable include Lochindorb Castle Island, Loch Leven Castle Island, St Serf's Inch, and Inchmahome, each of which have played a highly important part in Scottish history.

Inchmurrin in Loch Lomond is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles,^[13][14]. It is in Loch Lomond, which contains over sixty other islands.^[14]

Smaller offshore islands

This is a continuing list of uninhabited Scottish islands smaller than 40 hectares in size.

Small archipelagos

Boreray, Stac Lee, and Stac an Armin (left) from the heights of Conachair, St Kilda

There are various small archipelagos which may be better known than the larger islands they contain. These include:

Highest islands

• See also List of Munros and List of Marilyns on Scottish islands

Scotland's islands include thirteen Munros (mountains with a height over 3000 feet or 914.4 metres), twelve of them found on Skye, and a total of 227 Marilyns (hills with a relative height of at least 150 metres, regardless of absolute height).^[15] The following list is of all islands with a highest elevation greater than 300 metres (984 feet).

Clisham, Harris

An Sgurr, Eigg

The rock pinnacles of the Quiraing, Skye

Former islands

Inchgarvie can be seen just below the Forth Bridge

The following is a list of places which were formerly islands, but by some definitions are no longer so, due to silting up, natural processes and harbour building.

• Inchbroach, also known as Rossie Island, now part of Montrose harbour
• Keith Inch (not to be confused with Inchkeith), is now part of Peterhead Harbour, and hence is the easternmost point of 'mainland' Scotland.
• North Inch, one of the "Inches" in Perth, formerly an island in the River Tay.
• Rosyth Castle also stands on a former island.

Bridged islands

Skye bridge, Isle of Skye

Churchill Barrier 1, blocking Kirk