Grímsey á Steingrímsfirði

Notes on this location

Compiled from published sources rather than a visit. Sources are listed below.

A small island in the mouth of Steingrímsfjörður, less than 2 km off Drangsnes on the Strandir coast, holding roughly 23,000 breeding pairs of puffin — about 1% of the whole Icelandic population. A ten-minute boat trip from the village lands on it.

The puffins

Náttúrufræðistofnun gives 23,250 breeding pairs at the 2015 count, about 1.1% of the Icelandic puffin population; the Icelandic Wikipedia article rounds it to 23,000 pairs and 1%. Fulmar, kittiwake, eider, cormorant and other auks breed here too, but only the puffins are counted

How big — sources disagree

Náttúrufræðistofnun puts the island at 49 hectares and the designated bird area at 773 hectares, the difference being a marine zone of roughly 1 km around the shore. The Icelandic Wikipedia article gives 773 hectares as the size of the island itself. The two figures are the same number used for different things, so the island is taken here as the smaller one

Getting there

About a ten-minute boat crossing from Drangsnes; trips also run from Bær á Selströnd. Summer only

Not a nature reserve

Despite the name this catalog used, the island is not friðlýst. It is listed on the náttúruminjaskrá and as an Important Bird Area under IBA criterion A4iii, and it appears on the implementation plan as a candidate for future protection — a proposal, not a designation. Nothing found imposes a closed season or an access restriction

The lighthouse — sources disagree

Built 1915 and rebuilt 1949, after being hit by a German aircraft during the Second World War. NAT says it was destroyed in the attack (“eyðilagðist í loftárás Þjóðverja”); the Icelandic Wikipedia article says it took only minor damage (“smávægilegum skemmdum”). Both agree on the two dates and the cause

Fox cubs, not sheep

For years fox cubs (yrðlingar) were carried out to the island in early summer, raised there, and taken in winter when the pelts were worth most. An island with no land predators of its own was a pen that needed no fence

Water

Fresh water is scarce; there is one spring, Gvendarbrunnur

The name

Landnámabók attributes it to Grímur Ingjaldsson, who wintered on the island and drowned while rowing. Settlement was permanent long ago and later only seasonal

This is the catalog’s most accessible large puffin colony, and it is badly under-covered relative to Látrabjarg rather than unknown — English-language write-ups do exist (Reykjavík Grapevine, TripAdvisor, a handful of photographers’ trip reports), but they are routinely filed under the wrong island. It is ten minutes from a village on a road most itineraries skip, against a three-hour ferry or a flight for the Grímsey people have heard of. One percent of a national population on 49 hectares means density rather than distance: birds close enough for a short lens, which is the opposite of what the cliff colonies in this catalog demand. Go in June or early July, and note that unlike Flatey there is no closed season here to work around. Water is scarce and the crossing is seasonal, so this is a day trip and not a stay.

SourcesGrímsey á Steingrímsfirði — Náttúrufræðistofnun (mikilvæg fuglasvæði), Grímsey (Steingrímsfirði) — Wikipedia (íslenska), Grímsey í Steingrímsfirði — NAT ferðavísir