There are so many tiny islands in the world that we’ve never heard of. Though it may need a little extra effort to get to one of these remote islands by charter plane, helicopter, or the ferry but truly the travel is sure going to be worth it.
So which is smallest island in the world? Would every pebble in every mud puddle be a competitor? What in fact makes a real island?
You will be amazed to know about the The 7 Smallest Countries in the World.
In 1861 the British government answered this question, designating any dot of land as an island that either – is inhabited, or has sufficient grass for “at least one sheep for the summer’s pasturage.” It is one of the 1040 islands around Britain and the only with a lighthouse.
The Guinness Book of World Records awarded Bishop Rock the title of “Smallest Island”, the westernmost of Isles of Scilly that lie off the southwestern tip of Britain, the peninsula of Cornwall. Bishop Rock is too small to pasture anything: it’s a rocky ledge which is 16 meters wide and 46 meters long, at low tide about the size of 3 tennis courts. There stands a lighthouse a on this narrow ledge, making Bishop Rock the smallest island in the world with a building on it, as documented by the Guinness Book of Records.
The 49 meter lighthouse relied on candles and after that on paraffin vapor lamps, in the old days. In the present day there are batteries and generators and a helipad was also built in 1976. In 1991 Bishop Rock was transformed to an automatic operation and in December 1992 the last keepers left the lighthouse. Today the lighthouse has 10 floors, and up to 4 visitors can comfortably stay there for 1 to 3 weeks.
Bishop Rock – the smallest island in the world is an island of coral outcrops placed near the islands of Scilly in the middle of the Ocean. The island has no beaches, coconut trees or white sand since the whole surface of the island is coral.
At one time, Bishop Rock was famous as Men Epskop, and criminals were brought out there and abandoned to the waves with bread and water worth a few days. However in the year 1847, after a series of expensive shipwrecks in the area, the Crown built a 167 foot lighthouse on the island.
After a decade of risky construction — and after having one almost done lighthouse blow over in the storm — the Bishop Rock lighthouse was finally completed. In 1858 the keepers moved into the place, making Bishop Rock inhabited, and consequently smallest island in the world.
