Grímsey
Grímsey is a landscape in North Iceland, Iceland — about 480 km from Reykjavik and reached by a ferry crossing scheduled around the weather window. Shoot it during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography, then use the GPS coordinates, parking notes, and nearby waypoints below to fold this stop into a longer photography route.
Overview
An Island north of Iceland. Take the ferry from Dalvik. Grimsey Island is far away in the north: Home of one hundred people and one million seabirds.
As a photography stop, Grímsey is a landscape in North Iceland, roughly 480 km from Reykjavik, reached by a ferry crossing scheduled around the weather window. Plan the shoot during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography. The downloadable Landscape map pins exact GPS coordinates, parking, and nearby waypoints so you can fold it into a wider route instead of hunting for the pull-off on arrival.
Planning more than one stop? Open the landscape GPS map for Iceland to put Grímsey on the same offline layer as everything nearby.
Notes on this location
Compiled from published sources rather than a visit. Sources are listed below.
A 5.3 km² island 40 km off the north coast, population 57, and the only part of Iceland the Arctic Circle crosses. The circle drifts north about 14.5 m a year, so the marker on the island is a movable eight-tonne stone sphere.
- Size
- 5.3 km², maximum elevation 105 m
- Population
- 57 (2021)
- Arctic Circle
- Crosses the island and shifts north about 14.5 m a year; marked by "Orbis et Globus", an eight-tonne movable stone sphere placed in 2017 and repositioned as the circle moves. It leaves the island around 2047
- Getting there
- 40 km offshore; regular ferry from Dalvík three days a week, and flights to a 1,036 m runway
- Birds
- Large breeding colonies of kittiwakes, puffins, razorbills and common murres, plus gulls and arctic terns
- Coast
- Steep cliffs except on the southwestern shore
The sphere is the picture most people come for, and it is genuinely a moving subject — its position in a photograph dates the image, and the whole conceit expires around 2047. A three-days-a-week ferry also means this is the one location in the catalog where the schedule, not the light, decides the shoot.
SourcesGrímsey — Wikipedia
Light & aurora at this spot
Calculated from this location’s coordinates (66.542, -17.996). Iceland stays on UTC year-round, so these are local times.
- Summer
- Midnight sun in June — the sun does not set, so golden light runs for hours either side of midnight.
- Winter
- December: only 2.4 h of daylight (11:56–14:19), but the sun never climbs above 0.2° — the entire day is golden hour. Sunrise bears SSE, sunset SSW.
- Aurora
- Aurora-grade darkness Sep–Mar, peaking at 13.1 h a night in December. Not possible Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug — the sky never gets dark enough.
Bar height is daylight hours. Months marked • have enough astronomical darkness for aurora; the rest do not.
Questions & answers
Grímsey is a landscape in North Iceland, Iceland, approximately 480 km from Reykjavik. Exact GPS coordinates are included in the downloadable Landscape map.
The recommended season for Grímsey is Summer. For light, plan around blue hour and the first hour after sunrise; Iceland's long shoulder-season twilight extends usable conditions on either side.
Ferry access. You arrive by boat, so the timetable and the weather decide the day rather than road conditions. Check the sailing schedule before committing, and note when the last return leaves. The downloadable GPS map puts the waypoint on your phone; your own app routes you to it from wherever you are.
Grímsey is best visited during Summer. Outside that window, expect limited access, weather closures, or significantly different photographic conditions.