Brief geographical outline

Plan

1. Geographical Position of Great Britain

2. Climate

3. Population

4. England. London

5. Scotland. Edinburgh

6. Wales. Cardiff

7. Northern Ireland. Belfast

8. Fauna and Flora

1. Geographical position of Great Britainю The United Kingdom is very small comparing with the biggest countries of the world such as Russia, China or the USA. It occupies only 0.2 per cent of the world’s surface and its total area is about 244,000 square kilometres. However there are only 15 other countries with more people (there are about 57 million people in the UK now), and London is the world’s seventh biggest city. The population has remained relatively stable over the last decade, but has aged. Britain is relatively densely populated country. England has the highest population density and Scotland the lowest.

Many foreigners say “English” and “England” when they mean “British” and “Britain. This is very annoying for the 5 million Scotsmen, 2.8 million Welsh and 1.5 million Irishmen who are not certainly English but are all British. The country whose official name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and is situated on the British Isles. This group of islands lies between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and consists of two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and 550 smaller islands around them. It is separated from the continent of Europe by the English Channel, the narrowest part of which is called the Straight of Dover or Pas de Calais. In the west the UK is separated from Ireland by the Irish Sea and the North Channel. The seas around Britain are often rough and difficult to navigate during storms but they are full of fish and are extremely important for trade. Britain’s main ports are London, Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow and some others.

You will not find high mountains or large plains in Britain. Everything occupies very little place. The highest mountain, Ben Nevis (1,343 m) is in Scotland. Snowdon (1,085 m) is the highest peak in Wales. In the centre of England is a range of hills called the Pennine Chain, which is also known as the “backbone of England”. The Cumbrian mountains in Wales and the Cumbrian mountains in the Lake District in the north of England are not high but amazingly beautiful. The Chevoit Hills mark the boundary between England and Scotland, and physically Scotland is divided into three regions: the Highlands, the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

There are very many rivers in Great Britain. They are not very long but they are deep. Big ships can enter ports at some distance from the coast. The longest river is the Severn in England, but the most famous is the Thames (336 km) because it gave rise to the capital of the country – London. The Thames is navigable for big ships as far as London is.

Many people say that Great Britain looks like a large well-kept park. There are beautiful gardens, fields, meadows, lakes and woods there. The best-known wood is Sherwood Forest where Robin Hood once lived, the legendary outlaw who robbed the rich and gave their money to the poor. Lakes are found in the Lake District in England and in the Highlands of Scotland, where they are called lochs. The most famous lake is Loch Ness in Scotland, which is said to have a water monster.

In Great Britain there are about 4,000 km of navigable canals.

Great Britain is not very rich in mineral resources though there is oil and natural gas in the North Sea, coal in Wales and in the north of England, tin and other non-ferrous metals in the south.

The biggest cities of Britain are London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bradford, Newcastle-on-Tyne and some others.

2. Climate. Despite its reputation for grey skies and rain, the climate of Great Britain is generally mild, temperate and humid due to the influence of the warm Gulf Stream. Because the British Isles are surrounded by water the climate is also insular and it is much moister than on the continent of Europe. Although the weather changes frequently, the temperature seldom goes to extremes – it is more than +32 degrees C or less than –10.

Of course it rains throughout the year but the wettest months are from September to January while the driest are from March to June. There is much more rainfall in the mountainous areas of the west and north than in central parts of Britain. The west, which is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, is wetter than the coast washed by the North Sea. November, December and January have the least sunshine – only an hour a day in northern Scotland and two hours a day on the south coast of England. This abundance of rainfall results in thick fogs, which can last for days and weeks at a time during winter and autumn. But rains help grasses to grow, providing British cattle with good pastures and British countryside with its beautiful green charm.

The coldest parts of the British Isles are in Scotland and the warmest in the south-west of Ireland and England. Snow is rare there and it never lies on the ground for long. All the British ports are ice-free and the rivers do not freeze during the winter, which allows successful navigation.

3. Population. The United Kingdom ranks 16th in the world in size of population and in size of area. In 1990 the population of Great Britain was more than 57,411 million. About 20 per cent of the British people are rural dwellers, but only 10 per cent really live in the country. About 40 per cent of the British people live in urban areas, whose centres are the cities of London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford and Newcastle-on-Tyne. The UK is inhabited by the English (44.7 mln people) who constitute 81 per cent of the total population, the Scots (5 mln people), the Irish (1.5 mln people) and about 2.8 million Welshmen who live in Wales.

Among other nationalities inhabiting the United Kingdom there are Gaels, Jews, Poles, Germans, French people and Italians as well as migrants from India, Pakistan and African countries.

The population is increasing very slowly and in 1976-1978 and 1982 actually fell. The estimated age distribution in 1985 was 21% - younger than 16, 64% - 16-64 years, 15% - older than 64 years.

The average population density in Britain is about 239 per sq. km. England, with 361 inhabitants per sq. km, is one of the most densely populated country in the world (the rest of Britain is much lower: Wales – 135 per sq. km, Scotland – 65 and Northern Ireland – 111).