A 25-metre granite rock 300km west of the Hebrides with no permanent inhabitants and a sovereignty dispute between four countries
Rockall is a 25m × 31m × 25m granite sea stack, rising from the North Atlantic 301km west of St Kilda and 424km northwest of Ireland, with no beach, no landing stage, no fresh water, and no soil — just bare rock rising from the open ocean. It has no permanent inhabitants and has never had any; landing requires calm seas and rock-climbing ability; staying requires bolting a tent to the rock. Rockall is included here not as a destination but as perhaps the most remarkable piece of geography in the British Isles: four countries (UK, Ireland, Iceland, Denmark/Faroe Islands) claim or dispute right…
Rockall was formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1955 — a Royal Navy crew landed, raised a flag, and cemented a plaque to the rock. The UK claimed it primarily to pre-empt any other nation's ability to use it as a basis for EEZ claims over the surrounding fishing grounds. The 1987 UK Territorial Sea Act extended UK sovereignty to Rockall, but Ireland, Denmark (on behalf of the Faroe Islands), and Iceland have all disputed the claim to varying degrees. In 1997, a Greenpeace activist occupied Rockall for 42 days to protest oil exploration in the surrounding Atlantic Frontier — the longest…