High in the arctic circle, Quttinirpaaq National Park on Ellesmere Island, Canada is one of the most remote parks on earth, it sees only around 50 visitors a year. The park takes its name from the Inuktitut language, Quttinirpaaq means 'top of the world'.

Ittoqqortoormiit was founded in 1925 by Ejnar Mikkelsen and 80 other Inuit settlers on Liverpool Land, east of Hurry Inlet, in northeastern Greenland. Today, about 450 people live here and it remains one of the most remote settlements on Earth.

Even further north is Longyearbyen on the island of Svalbard. In fact, this is the most northerly settlement on the planet. This mining town was totally destroyed during the Second World War and had to be rebuilt from scratch.

At the other end of the planet is the island of South Georgia. Lying in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1300km from the Falkland Islands. There is no permanent population, and no regular transport, only a team of around 30 scientists and the occasional tourist party.

This Chilean village is one of only two civilian residential settlements on the continent - the others being temporary military or research stations. The village post office serves all Chilean bases on the continent, and its stamps are popular with collectors.

Finally, somewhere a little warmer. Easter Island is one of the most isolated islands on the planet, its nearest neighbours are are the small Juan Fernandez Islands, found 1,850km east. Despite this, Easter Island was once home to a flourishing civilisation.

This distant peak is famously the highest point on Earth above sea level. The world has changed a lot since it was first scaled in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, today it's less of an obstacle and more of an attraction.

At the other end of the scale, the lowest point on Earth below sea level is... a sea. The shoreline of the Dead Sea is about 400 metres below the level of the Mediterranean, and as the landlocked sea evaporates, it gets lower every year.

This humble metal stake, sign, and flag mark the most southerly point on Earth - from here, everywhere is north. Roald Amundsen's expedition team reached this point on 14 December, 1911, only a few weeks before the doomed expedition of Robert Falcon Scott.

L.S. Lowry's paintings became well-loved for capturing the complex bustle and toil of industrial North West England in the mid-twentieth century. Here, take an audio tour of what the artist called his "most characteristic mill scene". There's more than meets the eye...

The scene shows factory workers leaving at the end of a long day of exhausting work. We can almost hear the clock chiming the late hour. The clock face in the tower, though, is left blank. Though the scene is based on Lowry's native North West, it is an imagined one. This could be any factory at any time, a painting of universal experience.

The workers file out of the gate. There is a noise of bustle, and perhaps relief, as the day's work comes to an end. But the dark figures bow their heads, tired and stoic. There's little joy in the crowd.

From the claustrophobic working conditions of the mill, the figures stream into the open, bustling street. Listen: a horse and carriage trundles by. In 1930, when Lowry painted this scene, motor cars were being mass produced, but were expensive and not common in working areas.

A group of kids gather to kick a ball around a courtyard. Again, though they're playing, the figures seem oddly subdued. Times are tough in the industrial North, and even playing soccer is an act of strength during hardship.

The lights of the factory-owners' offices glow ominously and the towers loom imperiously, watching over the lives of the ordinary people from an almost godly height. Listen to the cold North English wind howling.

Down amongst the houses of the ordinary and the strong, these smaller chimneys are also smoking. A fire's on at home, and dinner is being prepared. There's the suggestion of domestic family comforts amidst the toil.