alt Hacker NewsThats certainly true, and I enjoy spending time in such places when I can. I was backpacking in Knoydart and on Skye this past summer -- and in many places there was no phone reception, and I was several hours walk from the nearest habitation or road, with nobody knowing quite where I was.
As for "small island" - I was trying to make a point about the size of the uk on a global scale, and compared to vast places like the Argentinian campo. But perhaps "island group" or "archipelago" would have been a better choice.
I come from northern Scotland. I've never really thought of it as one island. Even England has some notable ones like the Isle of Wight and Lindisfarne. (Wales and Northern Ireland have Anglesey and Rathlin.)
When you get to the Hebrides and Northern Isles, the scales are still pretty big. Most people don't realise that Shetland, for example, is a hundred miles from end to end (including Fair Isle).
It's also the best part of a hundred miles from Inverness to John O' Groats, and the road is bad beyond Easter Ross. Unlike the Faroe Islands, there has been little attempt to create tunnels... Just small bridges and causeways.
The smaller islands can get cut off in storms and power cuts come happen.
Knoydart and Moidart only used to be reachable by boat, despite being on the mainland. (You can walk but it's not easy.) They were so remote that the Protestant Reformation never reached them.
Even in the south west you have to factor in distance. For example, Campbelltown looks close to Glasgow on the map but takes at least three or four hours by bus. Tarbert to Campbelltown is thirty miles. The Isle of Jura to the west takes a long time to get to, unless you have a helicopter. (A shout to Galloway which is as far south as you can get in Scotland, and gets further south than Newcastle upon Tyne, but still has awful roads in many places.)
Places like Moidart, Knoydart, Kintyre, Glenelg, and even Cowal and Caithness function a bit like islands despite being on the mainland. Deliveries and utilities are horrible in these areas and they are being discriminated against by private delivery etc (the Royal Mail when it functioned better was a blessing to them.)
Of course there are parts of major continents which are much more remote, but these are bad enough. I've spent time in Australia where distances are incredible. Even Tasmania which looks small on the map is slightly smaller than Ireland.