Well I never, that’s where that town is!

[CormoranStrike]

I have spent fifty years - okay, cumulatively probably just fifty minutes - being utterly convinced Exeter was near Cambridge.

Today I had to check it in a map! Who knew? It’s kind of a Torquay/Plymouth way.

My world is tilting in its axel.

Anyone have other random finds like this?

@SoupDragon Ormskirk is in Lancashire? Just had to look it up. Anywhere with a name ending in kirk should be in Scotland.

How about names starting with Kirk, vegan?

@YesIReallyDoLikeRootBeer In my mind I always imagine New Zealand as being Northeast of Australia and I'm always surprised when I see its actually Southeast of it

Despite that, Auckland in New Zealand is further north than Melbourne in Australia.

Whereabouts is the small town of Kinloch?

But Britain is the UK

Britain & Great Britain are the same thing - England, Scotland, Wales.
UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The British Isles includes Ireland too.

Dunsop Bridge is the centre of the British Isles. Haltwhistle is the centre of the UK.
A field in Fenny Drayton, Leics is the centre of England.

It does depend what you mean by 'centre' - the centroid of the U.K. is in Morecambe bay. And the centre of the island of Britain is near Whalley - together with the aforementioned Dunsop Bridge all in Lancashire.

The various definitions are in wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentrepointssoftheeUnited_Kingdom

Used to think Billericay was in NI. Got confused about County Down and County Durham, thought they were both in NI. Or both in NE England. I was about 11 at the time. Billericay confusion lasted longer, maybe into my 30s. I actually pride myself on my knowledge of places and have travelled all over the U.K.

@GiantKitten I hadn't even thought about places beginning with kirk. I just googled the word. I always thought that it was Scottish for church but according to Wikipedia, it's a Scottish and Northern English word. Every day's a school day.

Btw, Goodies fan?

@StCharlotte and all other Winchester posters... I learned to drive in Winchester. That's probably why it took six attempts before I finally passed!

What really confuses me is the weathers east/west cost division. We're just south of Edinburgh in the borders, Edinburghs clearly east coast, we're fucking smack bang in the middle. Wheere the fuck are we

I felt enormously smug reading this thread.

I know exactly where most of the cities mentioned are, and I'd never make such stupid mistakes as are mentioned.

Then I remembered that I was well into my 20s before I understood which side Ireland is in relation to England.

I now have a job where I commute to Dublin every week, and I still cannot form a comfortable mental map of it.

SarahandQuack Did you think Ireland was in the North Sea ?
Did you not wonder why there was an Irish Sea off Wales and Liverpool and the Isle of Man was in the middle of it ?

Working in London many years ago, I mentioned I was going to Exeter for the weekend.

My team all thought it was in Scotland

@beanaseireann, you vastly, vastly overestimate my contextual knowledge there!

I had no clue. I just always pictured Ireland somehow the other side.

I only learned the whereabouts of towns in the UK by driving, so I've got some thoroughly skewed geography there, too.

Can we go international? Friends of ours went on a recce to Portugal to buy a place to run holiday lets. One of the properties involved changing planes in Lisbon and an additional two and a half hour flight.

They thought their destination felt a bit remote. It would do. It was the Azores.

Oh and you know the Bay of Biscay? In my head as a youngster I had that large body of water as being Germany. I could never understand why - or how - they invaded France by going through Belgium.

@StCharlotte but the Azores are in Portugal.

So, any guesses where Kinloch is?

I know (believe it or not) but they thought "Azores" was on the Portguese mainland.

They are Portuguese.

They aren’t in Portugal

I know that! My friends obviously didn't.

It's the way I tell 'em 🙄

hibiscuswater
So, any guesses where Kinloch is?

Which one?

@StCharlotte

StCharlotte
I know that! My friends obviously didn't.
It's the way I tell 'em

Sorry, was responding to EmmaGrundy