The British Empire once stretched across continents, and today a handful of its former territories survive as stunning, often surprising, amazing islands.
Amazing Islands: Legacy of the Empire
10 Tristan Da Cuhna
This volcanic speck in the southern Atlantic stakes a claim to being the most remote inhabited place on Earth. The nearest neighbor, Saint Helena, sits a staggering 1,900 km away, and the nearest continent—South Africa—is 2,400 km east or South America 3,400 km west. With no airport and a monthly supply boat, roughly 300 souls from 80 families call Tristan da Cuhna home.
Satellite imagery shows a near‑perfect circle dominated by a towering volcanic cone that looks ripped from a video game. The volcano is still alive; an eruption in 1961 forced the entire population to evacuate to Britain, and they only returned two years later.
Life here revolves around sheep and cattle farming, potato cultivation, and fishing. The island also cashes in on specially printed stamps that collectors adore. Land is owned communally, each household receiving a plot for potatoes, while livestock numbers are tightly regulated to keep any family from hogging the resources.
Outsiders aren’t allowed to buy land or settle, but visitors can still set foot on this remote utopia.
9 Diego Garcia
While many islands on this list boast tropical bliss, Diego Garcia feels more like a fortified outpost. Nestled in the Indian Ocean, just south of the equator, it lies 3,500 km east of Africa and 1,800 km south of India. The atoll is part of the Chagos Archipelago and forms the core of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
In 1965 Britain purchased the Chagos islands from Mauritius for £3 million. The following year the United States leased Diego Garcia for 50 years—no cash, just a $14 million discount on Polaris missiles for the UK. At the time, about 1,000 Chagossians lived there. Between 1968 and 1971 they were “encouraged” to leave; supplies of food and medicine were restricted, and the last residents were removed by force.
The US transformed the atoll into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” complete with two 3,700‑meter runways, massive fuel storage, and a lagoon that hosts naval vessels. The base, now called Camp Thunder Cove, has participated in numerous operations and is rumored to have hosted CIA black‑ops.
Legal battles continue as Chagossians fight for the right to return, but the US extended its lease in 2016 for another 20 years, pushing any possible repatriation well beyond 2036.
8 Pitcairn Island
The infamous mutiny on HMS Bounty set the stage for Pitcairn Island’s quirky saga. After the 1789 mutiny, Fletcher Christian and eight crew members, along with 18 Polynesians, fled to this volcanic speck in the South Pacific, burned the Bounty, and began a new life.
Located about 2,200 km from Tahiti, the island lacks an airport or harbor; supplies arrive via small boats that unload at Bounty Bay. By 1808, only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. The Royal Navy finally visited in 1814, meeting Adams and his son, Thursday October Christian.
Pitcairn became a British colony in 1838 and earned the distinction of being the Empire’s first territory to grant women the right to vote. Its population has ebbed and flowed, peaking at several hundred, but by 2014 only 56 residents remained, many of whom have moved to New Zealand. The island now seeks new settlers to avoid becoming a ghost island by 2050.
7 Montserrat
Montserrat, the Caribbean’s “Emerald Isle,” shares its nickname with Ireland. In the 1970s, Beatles producer George Martin set up AIR Studios there, spawning hit records from Dire Straits, The Police, and the Rolling Stones. The studio closed after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
Six years later, the island’s long‑dormant volcano awoke, burying the capital Plymouth in ash and forcing mass evacuations. Subsequent eruptions in 2006, 2008, and 2010 kept the southern part of the island an exclusion zone, visited only by volcanologists.
6 Saint Helena
After his final defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to Saint Helena, a remote Atlantic island where escape was virtually impossible. He died there in 1821; his former residence, Longwood House, now serves as a French‑run museum.
Today about 4,500 islanders rely on a supply ship that arrives every few weeks. A £200 million airport was completed in 2016, but wind conditions make landings treacherous, leaving the terminal largely unused as of 2017.
5 Ascension Island
Ascension Island plays a hidden but vital role in global navigation: one of the four ground antennas that keep the GPS system humming sits here. NASA also operates an observatory that tracks dangerous space debris for the International Space Station.
Located about 800 km south of the equator, the island began as a Royal Navy base in 1815, completely barren of trees. Starting in the 1850s, the navy imported and planted vegetation, and within three decades a forest covered the island’s central peak. Today roughly 800 residents work at scientific, tracking, or military facilities.
4 South Georgia
South Georgia sits in the South Atlantic, just north of the Antarctic Circle, where summer highs barely reach 9 °C (48 °F) and winters hover around freezing. No permanent population lives here; instead, rotating crews staff a few scientific bases, and a summer museum at Grytviken welcomes cruise‑ship visitors.
The island is also the final resting place of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, whose grave draws history enthusiasts from around the globe.
3 Bermuda
Situated 1,000 km off the US East Coast, Bermuda began as an English Virginia Company outpost after a 1609 shipwreck forced 150 survivors ashore. The wreck’s account may have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
In 1684 Bermuda formally became an English colony and later a crucial Royal Navy hub during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, even launching attacks on Washington, DC. Today, tourism and offshore finance drive the economy, and the island gifted the world the iconic Bermuda shorts—a sharp‑looking blend of formal shirt, jacket, tie, and tailored shorts.
2 Anguilla
Anguilla’s path to its current status was anything but smooth. In 1967 the British Foreign Office tried to merge Anguilla with Saint Kitts and Nevis into a single state—a move that sparked two revolutions.
Anguillans feared domination by the larger islands, so they expelled the Saint Kitts police in May 1967 and set up a provisional government. A July referendum saw 99.7 % vote to split, followed by a second vote in 1969 where 99.8 % endorsed full independence. British troops and police intervened, but no shots were fired, and Anguilla remained under UK administration while Saint Kitts and Nevis achieved independence.
Today the island thrives as a sun‑soaked vacation spot and tax haven.
1 The Turks And Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos archipelago, comprising eight inhabited islands, epitomizes a tropical Caribbean paradise. Tourism dominates the economy, with roughly a million visitors each year—about 20 tourists per resident.
Because many Canadians flock to the islands, proposals have floated for the territory to become a Canadian province. The idea dates back to 1917, resurfaced in 1974, and continues to spark discussion, suggesting a future where Canada might claim a sunny slice of the Caribbean.