Islands of Iceland

Vestmannaeyjar

Heymaey is the largest island (13.4 km² - 5.2 sq. miles) in the Vestmannaeyjar cluster, approximately 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) off the south coast of Iceland. It is the only on inhabited.

The first person said to have built a farm in Heimaey was known as Herjólfur Bárðarson. He apparently built his farm in Herjólfsdalur (literally: Herjólf's valley). The ruins in Herjólfsdalur were excavated in 1971, and did much to unsettle the story of Herjólfur Bárðarson though.

The year 1627, three pirate ships from the Ottoman-controlled Barbary Coast raided many towns on the south coast of Iceland, most notably Grindavík and Vestmannaeyjar. In Grindavík townspeople could flee into the lava field of Reykjanes and hide indefinitely, however Heimaey, being so remote and secluded, was hit rather badly.

Many heroic stories exist of the people who survived the invasion, most notably Guðríður Símonardóttir, better known as Tyrkja-Gudda (Turkish-Gudda), who was taken from her home at Stakkagerði on Heimaey to the slave market in Algeria. From there she bought her way back to Iceland through Tunisia, Italy and Denmark—Iceland was then under Danish rule. Upon returning to Iceland she married Icelandic poet Hallgrímur Pétursson, to whom Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík is honoured.

On 23 January 1973 at around one in the morning a volcanic eruption of the mountain Eldfell began on Heimaey. The ground on Heimaey started to quake and clefts began to forme. The clefts grew up to 1600 meters and soon lava began to erupt. The eruption didn't stop until the 3 July the same year.

During the night the 5000 inhabitants of the island were evacuated, mostly by fishing boats, as almost the entire fishing fleet was in dock. The encroaching lava flow threatened to destroy the harbour that was the main source of livelihood for most of the town. However, by spraying the lava constantly with cold sea water some of it solidified and diverted the rest, saving the harbour from destruction. During the eruption, though, half of the town was crushed and the island grew a great deal.

Heimaey was about 11.2 sq. km before the eruption but the "island" grew about 2.24 sq. km, so the island was about 13.44 sq. km when the eruption finally stopped. Only one man died in the eruption.

Surtsey

The eruption may have started a few days earlier and lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of 2.7 km². Since then, wind and wave erosion has seen the island steadily diminish in size: As of 2007, its surface area is 1.4 km² in size.

The new island was named after the fire god Surtr from Norse mythology, and was intensively studied by volcanologists during its creation and, since the end of the eruption, has been of great interest to botanists and biologists as life has gradually colonised the originally barren island. The undersea vents that produced Surtsey are part of the Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Isles) submarine volcanic system, part of the fissure of the sea floor called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Vestmannaeyjar also produced the famous eruption of Eldfell on the island of Heimaey in 1973.

Grimsey

The land area is 5.3 square kilometres (2.0 sq mi). It is the northernmost inhabited region of Iceland. The main industry is fishery. The island is connected to the mainland by a ferry that sails to Dalvík and it also has a small airport.

Flatey

People first settled in Flatey in early historic times, but it never had a great population. Now it is only inhabited seasonally, during summer, and many tourists visit the island in this time.

Skjálfandi bay is an excellent place for fishing (especially cod and lumpfish, so it is from the sea that most inhabitants take their living. The soil is very fertile, so they also practice agriculture.

There are only a few buildings in the island. The most important of them are: a schoolhouse built in 1929, an ancient church shut down in 1884, a lighthouse built in 1913 and rebuilt in 1963 and a radiotelegraph made in 1931. The old church was replaced by a new one in 1960. The new church was actually the church of Brettingsstaðir in Flateyjardalur valley, which was taken apart and moved out to Flatey.

One of the things that attract the most tourists is the great number of bird species living there. Thirty of the thirty-seven species of bird in Iceland are found there during the breeding season - puffins, terns, whimbrels, and plovers are examples of birds found there.

Eldey

Its sheer cliffs are home to large numbers of birds, including the largest gannet colony in the world, with some 70,000 members.

The island formerly supported a large population of great auk before the species was hunted to extinction. The last known specimen was killed on Eldey on 4 June 1844.

Hrisey

The island is most easily reached by a ferry service that leaves from Árskógssandi, which takes only 15 minutes to reach the island.

Hrísey itself has a total land area of 7.67 km², and is about 7.5 km long by 2.5 km wide at its widest point in the south. It is the second largest island off the coast of Iceland (after Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar).

It has a population of approximately 200 people, and has been continuously inhabited since the time of settlement in Iceland.

More recently, Hrísey has developed a reputation as a good spot for birdwatching. There are no natural predators on the island, making it an ideal bird sanctuary. The northern part of Hrísey, Ystabæjarland, is a privately owned nature reserve, and the killing of birds is forbidden on the rest of the island. Among the 40 species of bird on the island are the ptarmigan, arctic tern, and eider duck.

Drangey

It was first mentioned in the Icelandic classic Grettis saga as being the refuge of the outlaw Grettir, who spent his last years there with his brother, Illugi, and his slave Glaumur. In late autumn of 1031, Grettir was assassinated where he lay virtually dying in his shed on the island.

An old legend says that two night-prowling giants, a man and a woman, were traversing the fjord with their cow when they were surprised by the bright rays of daybreak. As a result of exposure to daylight, all three were turned into stone. Drangey represents the cow and Kerling (supposedly the female giant) is to the south of it. Karl (the male giant) was to the north of the island, but he disappeared long ago.

The bird life in Drangey is varied and lively, but the most common are diving birds: the guillemot, auk and puffin. The guillemot nests in the cliffs, while the auk mostly prefers deep cracks underneath the cliffs. The puffin, on the other hand, digs holes in the edge of the cliffs. In addition to these species, the Black-legged Kittiwake and fulmar nest in the cliffs and the raven and falcon also have their sanctuaries there.

Drangey has for ages been a harbinger of spring for the local residents. Every spring, they visited the island to collect both eggs and birds. They used ropes to climb down the fowling cliffs for the eggs, but the birds were caught using rafts placed on the sea underneath the cliffs. These rafts were covered with bird snares made of horsehair. The bird catchers mostly found shelter in sheds on the beach on the southernmost tip of the island.

From this point, they also used to go fishing in their boats. At peak seasonal periods, there were as many as 200 men engaged in fowling and the catch was in excess of 200,000 birds when the yield was best. The use of snares was discontinued in 1966.