Gough and Inaccessible Islands

These two small and remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean have UNESCO World Heritage status because they are important nature reserves.

They are volcanic islands that are highly attractive to wildlife but of no commercial interest, which is just as well for the wildlife. They are therefore uninhabited, except for a small weather station on Gough Island.

Gough Island (pictured - but not by me!) lies between the British territory of Tristan da Cunha and South Africa, being a dependency of the former. It is around 35 square miles in size, just over 8 miles long and 4 miles wide. It has been described as the world’s most important seabird colony with some fifty species of bird found there.

It is the breeding ground for nearly half the world’s population of rockhopper penguins, it has about three million pairs of great shearwaters, 2,000 pairs of wandering albatrosses, and the world’s last remaining southern giant petrels, now reduced to no more than 150 pairs.

Inaccessible Island (just under five and a half square miles in size) is part of the Tristan da Cunha island group. Its name may not be strictly accurate, but access is highly restricted so that the wildlife can remain undisturbed. It is one of the few ocean islands in the temperate zone to which no non-native mammals have been introduced. It has two bird, eight plant and ten (or more) invertebrate species that are endemic to the island.