This is the most remote inhabited island on Earth - and fewer than 250 people call it home

The are thousands of islands located in the vast oceans of the planet. Some of those are part of an archipelago in the South Atlantic that lies roughly halfway between South America and Africa, called Tristan de Cunha. They were first discovered by a Portuguese captain in 1506, who gave the main island his name, although he never set foot on it.

The main island is the only one of these volcanic seamounts that is home to residents, 221 souls. Sitting around 1,500 miles from the nearest land that makes it the most remote inhabited island on Earth. It and its residents are largely cut off from the rest of the world by geography and weather.

The most remote inhabited island on Earth

Its rugged coastline provides no natural harbor, only limited sea defenses provide some shelter from the unpredictable waters. The manmade Calshot Harbour, built in the late 1960s, is too small to accommodate ships that rarely frequent Tristan de Cunha, so supplies and people must be ferried on smaller boats to land. And when not in use, those boats must be pulled out of the water as they have no place to berth.

Furthermore, the island’s location in the middle of the ocean and the 6,765-foot Queen Mary’s Peak help it generate its own fast-changing weather from hour to hour producing severe storms and heavy swells. Islanders who venture out onto the water have to prepare “a good-weather plan and a bad-weather plan,” says islander James Glass. He explained to NPR that most days both plans are employed.

Nor does it have an airport because of the rugged terrain. Recently the UK military had to parachute in medical personnel and supplies after one of the British nationals on the island was suspected of contracting Hantavirus. The person had been on the fated cruise ship on which a deadly form of the virus spread.

Life on the most remote inhabited island

The island, which is seven miles in diameter, was first settled in 1816 when the British laid claim to Tristan de Cunha and set up a garrison. When they left the following year Corporal William Glass, his wife and two children stayed behind along with two stonemasons.

Over the years, the population has been augmented by other settlers and shipwreck survivors from various countries. All of their descendants still on the island live in the only village, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.

The locals live in a cooperative, communal environment where it is an all-hands-on-deck effort to get all the work that needs to be done finished. They grow potatoes and have feral cattle whose population they strictly control, and each islander can have two sheep.

Among the way islanders make money is by exporting gourmet-quality lobsters that they catch in the waters around Tristan de Cunha which is a highly productive biodiversity hotspot. 91% of the 289,576 sq.mi Exclusive Economic Zone is a Marine Protection Zone encompassing “ecosystems ranging from rocky coastlines and kelp forests to vast deep ocean areas and seamounts.”

Despite its remoteness, people can attempt to visit the island. However, they must first speak with the Island Council to get permission. The island has “a combined tourism center and post office, swimming pool, internet café, café, supermarket and the world’s most remote pub (the Albatross) in the Prince Philip Hall,” according to its UK Overseas Territories Association webpage.

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