Islands of Scotland

The geography of Scotland comprises the mainland plus many islands. Some of these islands are inhabited and through time their inhabited/uninhabited status can change.

The prime reason for identifying inhabited islands was to aid the delivery and collection of Census questionnaires. If an island is inhabited, then Royal Mail will allocate postcodes to the island’s addresses. Many of the larger islands, with relatively large populations, will have postcodes that cover only the island. However, some of the smaller inhabited islands have very few households and in some cases the postcode for these island addresses is the same as that of some households on the mainland. In order to ensure that Census questionnaires are collected and delivered correctly, it is important that both parts of the postcode (the island addresses and the mainland addresses) are contained within the same Census Enumeration District. The identification of inhabited islands helps with the creation of meaningful Census Enumeration Districts.

In addition to the enumeration aspect of the census, there has always been an interest in the statistics associated with Scotland’s inhabited islands and this dataset helps ensure that they are all identified.

This “Inhabited Island” dataset was not rigorously maintained in the period between 2010 and 2012 and in January 2013 the dataset was re-established with some revisions.

 
Citation proposal
(2013) . Islands of Scotland. Scottish Government https://services.mspdata.eu:/geonetwork/srv/api/records/39a178cf-6086-41d0-9fc3-e867381fb44f

Simple

Alternate title
census.GIS.PC_INHABTD_ISL
Date ( Creation )
2013-01-01
Date ( Publication )
2013-01-01
Identifier
www.nrscotland.gov.uk / Islands2011

  Owner

  Distributor

  Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded As needed
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ( Theme )
  • Statistical units
Use limitation
No conditions apply
Use limitation
None
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
None
Denominator
10000
Metadata language
eng English
Topic category
  • Boundaries
N
S
E
W


Reference system identifier
EPSG / OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG:27700) / 7.4
Distribution format
  • ESRI Shapefile (1.0 )

  • WMS (1.3.0 )

OnLine resource
National Records of Scotland website  

Geography – Civil Parishes and Islands

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Statement

The geography of Scotland comprises the mainland plus many islands. Some of these islands are inhabited and through time their inhabited/uninhabited status can change.

The prime reason for identifying inhabited islands was to aid the delivery and collection of Census questionnaires. If an island is inhabited, then Royal Mail will allocate postcodes to the island’s addresses. Many of the larger islands, with relatively large populations, will have postcodes that cover only the island. However, some of the smaller inhabited islands have very few households and in some cases the postcode for these island addresses is the same as that of some households on the mainland. In order to ensure that Census questionnaires are collected and delivered correctly, it is important that both parts of the postcode (the island addresses and the mainland addresses) are contained within the same Census Enumeration District. The identification of inhabited islands helps with the creation of meaningful Census Enumeration Districts.

In addition to the enumeration aspect of the census, there has always been an interest in the statistics associated with Scotland’s inhabited islands and this dataset helps ensure that they are all identified.

This “Inhabited Island” dataset was not rigorously maintained in the period between 2010 and 2012 and in January 2013 the dataset was re-established with the following revisions:

1) The dataset now only contains islands that are currently inhabited or have been inhabited in the past. All islands that have never been inhabited have been removed from the dataset. The inhabited status of the islands has been updated to agree with the postcodes as at January 2011.

2) The island outlines now agree with the detail of OS BoundaryLine.

The Bell Rock has been placed in the correct location using 250K raster as the source.

Dubh Artach has been placed in the correct location using 250K raster as the source.

3) There are now 159 islands in the dataset, whereas previously there were 160. The reason for the decrease of one, is that an area of land between the island of Inchbraoch (also known as Rossie), near Montrose and the mainland was reclaimed and as a result the area of Inchbraoch is now considered part of the mainland.

4) The islands have been named to agree with the Ordnance Survey mapping backgrounds. Where there are islands with the same name, a separate identifier has been added to help distinguish between them - for example, there are 2 islands in the Outer Hebrides called Grimsay: to help define them a “North” and “South” have been added..

5) On the previous version of the dataset, an island was incorrectly identified as “Flannan”. In this version the island has been correctly named as “Eilean Mor (Flannen Islands)”.

6) There has been a slight change to one of the existing codes.

On the previous version of the dataset, code 015 referred to “Bound Skerry (and Grunay)” and code 260 referred to “Grunay”.

After investigation it was established that the relevant postcode applied only to “Grunay”. It was also established that “Bound Skerry” has never been inhabited and has therefore been deleted from the dataset.

In this current version of the dataset, the code 015 has been allocated to “Grunay” only.

Metadata

File identifier
39a178cf-6086-41d0-9fc3-e867381fb44f   XML
Metadata language
eng English
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2018-12-05
Metadata standard name
ISO 19115:2003/19139
Metadata standard version
1.0

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