The island of Grimsey, Iceland
It is 6.5 km2 and is about 40 kilometers off the north coast of Iceland. It’s one of the most remote villages in Europe, but not for the hundreds of thousands of birds that live there.
Until 1931, the only way to get to Grímsey was on board a small boat that delivered letters twice a year to the island. Nowadays, the 20-minute flights from Akureyri city and ferry boats three hours from the village of Dalvík they brought the island out of isolation — more or less.
The ratio of birds to humans is astonishing: around 50,000 birds to one human — there are around a million birds, but only 20 people live in Grímsey. Halla Ingolfsdottir is one of them.
“People think I moved here for love, but I fell in love with the island”, explained the tour guide who lives on the island to . “There is a magic and I fell in love with the way the people lived here, the islanders and the nature. Nature is very powerful here, it’s a different natural force in winter, and with the darkness comes the Northern Lights, the stars and the storms. In spring comes the light and the birds. Every season is special.”
Animals are in the (very large) majority on the island
Grímsey is so remote that it is outside Iceland’s national electricity grid. Instead, the entire island runs on diesel.
“People on my guided tours always ask me if I get bored, but I have so much to do,” says Ingolfsdottir. “We do the same things as those who live on the mainland: we work, we go to the gym, we exercise, but it’s nature that keeps me here.” Everything normal… more or less.
On the island there is no hospitalnot even a single doctor. Also there is no police station. In the event of an emergency, Ingolfsdottir says the Coast Guard and emergency services have trained residents to know what to do.
Even so, the island welcomes tourists, and several of the few houses function as local accommodation. There is a school, but it functions as a community center, a small grocery store that only opens about an hour a day and a café that also doubles as a souvenir shop.
There is also, within the island with 6.5 km2 which is about 40 kilometers off the north coast of Iceland, a restaurant with a bar inside, a swimming pool, a library, a church and the airstrip — which is also a popular bird landing spot.
There are a few dozen houses on the island
“Nowadays, the land of Grímsey is owned by the residents, the town of Akureyri and the Icelandic Statewho work to preserve the island’s legacy as a natural treasure and resilient community,” he says María H Tryggvadóttir, manager of the Grímsey tourism project. “What fascinates me most about Grímsey is its remoteness, its unique light and its incredible birdlife.”
The island has large populations of puffins, black-legged gulls, sealbills and guillemots — as well as Icelandic horses and sheep that roam freely in the wild.
The tourism manager also guarantees that “there is something truly exceptional about wandering along the steep cliffs of this grassy islandfeeling the profound tranquility of the landscape, while being surrounded by thousands of seabirds. But it is the sincerity and warmth of people which create a welcoming, close-knit community and make Grímsey truly special.”
