World's smallest island

While most visitors to New York will be all-too-familiar with the island of Manhattan, most will not have heard of this tiny island about the size of a tennis court on the north coast of the state.

Sitting just off the village of Alexandria Bay, this small stretch known as Just Enough Room Island just about manages to hold a house, a tree, shrubs and a small beach – making it the smallest inhabited island in the world.

Housing a few deck chairs and a single cottage with walls built right to the edges of its 30,000 sq-ft space, the private patch formerly known as Hub Island was purchased in the 1950s by the wealthy Sizeland family who wanted to build a holiday home.

But their hopes for quiet family escapes were quickly shattered as the island became a popular viewing attraction for its miniature size among tourists cruising along the St Lawrence River.

The historic land is half the size of Britain’s Bishop Rock, in the Isles of Scilly, which was the former smallest inhabited island in the world before losing its Guinness Book of Records title in 1982 after its lighthouse was automated and no longer required a human to operate it.