British Overseas Territories
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50 free British Overseas Territories trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The United Kingdom still holds a scattering of overseas territories, the last pieces of an empire that once circled the globe. They range from a fortified rock at the mouth of the Mediterranean to Caribbean beach islands, windswept South Atlantic moorland and specks of land so remote that reaching them means a long sea voyage. This quiz covers the UK territories one by one: where they are, how Britain came to hold them, who lives there and what makes each unusual. Expect questions on Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Falklands, the Caymans, Anguilla, Montserrat, Pitcairn and more, with capitals, wildlife, shipwrecks, exiles and a few very strange place names along the way. It suits geography fans, pub quiz teams, students of British history and anyone who has wondered why the Union Jack still flies over islands thousands of miles from London. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing far more about the United Kingdom's territories than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Until a tunnel opened in 2023, what did Gibraltar's main road to the Spanish border run straight across?
An airport runway
An airport runway cut across Winston Churchill Avenue, so barriers stopped every car whenever a plane landed or took off. Pedestrians can still walk over it between flights.
Q 02Jonathan, brought to Saint Helena in 1882 when he was already about fifty years old, is what kind of animal?
Giant tortoise
A giant tortoise from the Seychelles, Jonathan hatched around 1832, five years before Queen Victoria took the throne. He became the oldest tortoise ever reliably recorded.
Q 03Which internet domain, Anguilla's country code, became a windfall for the island in the 2020s tech boom?
.ai
.ai is simply Anguilla's country code, but the rush of artificial-intelligence firms to register it was expected to supply nearly half of the island's state income in 2025.
Q 04Which defeated ruler was exiled to Saint Helena in 1815 and died there six years later?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte had already escaped one island exile, on Elba, so after Waterloo Britain chose a speck in the South Atlantic. He spent his last years at Longwood House.
Q 05The Bermuda Triangle is usually drawn between Bermuda, San Juan in Puerto Rico and which American city?
Miami
Miami was fixed as a corner by a 1964 magazine article titled The Deadly Bermuda Triangle. Lloyd's of London later found that no unusual number of ships had sunk in the area.
Q 06Which monkeys roam free on the Rock of Gibraltar, forming the only wild monkey population in Europe?
Barbary macaques
Barbary macaques are tied by legend to British rule, so when their numbers fell to seven in 1942 Winston Churchill ordered fresh animals shipped in at once.
Q 07In the 2013 referendum on whether the Falkland Islands should stay British, how many ballots said no?
3
3 ballots out of 1,518 went against, which gave a 99.8% majority for remaining a British territory on a turnout of 92%.
Q 08The people of Pitcairn Island descend mostly from Tahitians and the mutineers of which Royal Navy ship?
HMS Bounty
HMS Bounty was set on fire by the nine mutineers soon after they landed in 1790, and what is left of the hull still lies underwater in the bay named after it.
Q 09Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands is reputed to have inspired a pirate novel by which Scottish author?
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson published Treasure Island in 1883. Norman Island's legend rests on real loot: chests of silver from a Spanish galleon were buried there in 1750.
Q 10The 1609 wreck of the ship Sea Venture on Bermuda is widely thought to have inspired which Shakespeare play?
The Tempest
The Tempest was written about a year after the castaways left Bermuda. They had spent nine months there building two small ships to finish their voyage to Virginia.
Q 11Which South American country calls the Falkland Islands the Islas Malvinas and claims them as its own?
Argentina
Argentina uses a name that began in French: the explorer Bougainville called the islands the Îles Malouines in 1764, after Saint-Malo, the port his ships sailed from.
Q 12Which British prime minister sent a naval task force to retake the Falkland Islands in April 1982?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher dispatched the fleet within days of the invasion, and the 74-day war ended with the islands back in British hands on 14 June.
Q 13Which polar explorer, leader of the Endurance expedition, is buried at Grytviken on South Georgia?
Ernest Shackleton
Q 21The Cayman Islands take their name from a Taíno word for which animal, which once lived there?
Crocodile
Crocodile is the meaning of caiman in the Taíno language. Columbus had first called the islands Las Tortugas, after the turtles that crowded their shores.
Q 22Which name belongs to a Grand Cayman tourist spot known for jagged black limestone and a busy post office?
Hell
Hell is a patch of black limestone spikes about half the size of a football field, and its bright red post office does a brisk trade in postcards stamped with the name.
Q 23Which blue reptile, found wild only on Grand Cayman, had dwindled to fewer than 15 animals by 2003?
Iguana
Iguana numbers on Grand Cayman climbed back to about 750 by 2012, after hundreds of captive-bred blue iguanas were released into a protected reserve.
Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack aboard his ship at South Georgia in 1922. His wife asked that he stay on the island instead of being brought home to England.
Q 14Which British entrepreneur bought the uninhabited Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands at the age of 28?
Richard Branson
Richard Branson bought Necker only six years after starting the Virgin Group, then turned the empty island into a luxury retreat.
Q 15Which saint's day is a public holiday on Montserrat, marking a failed slave uprising on that date in 1768?
St Patrick's Day
St Patrick's Day honours the Irish roots behind Montserrat's nickname, the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean. The date became a public holiday in 1985 and now anchors a ten-day festival.
Q 16Which Beatles producer opened AIR Studios on Montserrat in 1979, drawing stars such as Elton John to record there?
George Martin
George Martin built the studio near his own island home. It never reopened after Hurricane Hugo struck in 1989, shortly after the Rolling Stones had recorded an album there.
Q 17Gibraltar looks across a strait about 14 km wide at its narrowest to which African country?
Morocco
Morocco faces Gibraltar across the only natural link between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. A vast flood through the gap is thought to have refilled the Mediterranean about 5.3 million years ago.
Q 18In ancient legend, the Rock of Gibraltar was one of which pair of landmarks at the edge of the known world?
Pillars of Hercules
The Pillars of Hercules marked the mouth of the Mediterranean for Greek and Roman sailors. Which African peak was the southern pillar has been argued over ever since.
Q 19Which city has been the capital of Bermuda since 1815, when it took over from the older town of St George's?
Hamilton
Hamilton counted just 854 residents at the 2016 census, which makes it one of the smallest capital cities in the world.
Q 20Which Scottish city shares its name with the only settlement on Tristan da Cunha, styled 'of the Seven Seas'?
Edinburgh
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas honours not the city but a person: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, a son of Queen Victoria who visited the island in 1867.
Q 24Road Town, capital of the British Virgin Islands, stands on which island, the largest in the territory?
Tortola
Tortola is home to more than four in five of the territory's people. Its name is said to come from the Spanish for turtle dove.
Q 25Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands in 1493 after the legendary 11,000 virgin companions of which saint?
Ursula
Saint Ursula gave the islands the full name Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, a mouthful that was later cut down to the Virgin Islands.
Q 26Which settlement on Grand Turk has been the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands since 1766?
Cockburn Town
Cockburn Town keeps the government, but far more islanders live on Providenciales, the most populated island in the group.
Q 27The Turks Islands are named after which kind of plant, a native species with a red, fez-like cap?
Cactus
The Turk's cap cactus grows a red crown that resembles the fez worn in the late Ottoman Empire, which is how a Caribbean island chain came to be named after Turks.
Q 28Which American astronaut was brought ashore on Grand Turk after orbiting Earth and splashing down nearby in 1962?
John Glenn
John Glenn had spent just under five hours in space aboard Friendship 7, and his capsule came down in the North Atlantic close to the Turks and Caicos.
Q 29Both the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos were dependencies of which colony until its 1962 independence?
Jamaica
Jamaica left British rule in August 1962, and both island groups chose to stay behind, becoming separate Crown colonies instead.
Q 30Anguilla's long, thin outline earned the island a name that comes from a Latin-rooted word for which fish?
Eel
Eel is the meaning of the Italian word anguilla, which goes back to a Latin word for a little snake. The island is about 26 km long and only 5 km across.