Vestmannaeyjar Islands

The harbour and the inhabited island

Heimaey is the human centre of Vestmannaeyjar. The archipelago contains numerous islands, skerries and sea stacks, but the town and harbour on Heimaey are where permanent settlement became possible. The surrounding fishing grounds supported the community, while the natural harbour on the island’s northeast side gave boats shelter along an otherwise exposed coast. The harbour remains active rather than preserved as a historic setting; fishing vessels, processing and the daily movement between sea and land still explain much of the town’s character.

Its importance was once expressed by a former mayor in the simplest possible terms: “Without the harbour, there is no town.” The statement reaches beyond economics. The harbour connected Heimaey with mainland Iceland, supported generations of families and gave the island a reason to sustain a permanent community in a demanding maritime environment. It also explains why the events of 1973 became a struggle not only to save buildings, but to preserve the possibility of life on the island.

Vestmannaeyjar means the Islands of the Westmen. The name is connected with the Irish thralls of Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson, one of Iceland’s early settlers, who killed him and fled to the islands before Ingólfur Arnarson pursued them. In Old Norse usage, people from Ireland and the western British Isles were called Vestmenn. The name therefore carries the memory of slavery, violence and movement across the North Atlantic at the beginning of Iceland’s settlement history.

Eldfell and the evacuation of 1973

The modern landscape of Heimaey changed during the night of 23 January 1973, when a volcanic fissure opened close to the eastern edge of the town. Most residents had little warning, but a fishing fleet was in harbour because of poor weather. The boats made it possible to evacuate more than 5,000 people to the mainland within hours, while emergency workers and a smaller group of residents remained to protect property and maintain essential operations.

The eruption created Eldfell, a new volcanic cone above the town. Lava and ash destroyed or buried hundreds of homes, and approximately one-third of the settlement disappeared beneath the eruption’s deposits. The advance of the lava was particularly dangerous because it moved towards the harbour entrance. If that entrance had closed, the island might have retained its houses and streets but lost the economic foundation that made the town viable.

Eldheimar now gives this history a physical centre. The museum is built around Gerðisbraut 10, one of the houses excavated from beneath the ash and lava. It presents the eruption through the lives of the people who left in the night, the work carried out during the emergency and the difficult question of whether the community could return. Eldfell itself can be climbed in approximately one and a half hours return. The route is not overly difficult in normal conditions, but the loose scoria shifts underfoot and wind can make the exposed upper slope more demanding.

Defending the harbour and rebuilding the town

The effort to protect the harbour became one of the most remarkable engineering operations attempted during a volcanic eruption. Seawater was pumped through an expanding system of pipes and sprayed onto the advancing lava. Cooling hardened parts of the flow, increased its resistance and helped slow and influence the direction of the moving lava front. The operation did not stop the eruption, but it contributed to keeping the harbour entrance open when its loss would have threatened the future of the entire settlement.

The new lava ultimately narrowed the entrance without closing it and provided additional shelter from the sea. A landscape that had nearly destroyed the harbour also altered it in a way that improved its protection. The use of water against lava during the later Reykjanes eruptions drew upon the same underlying principle, showing the continuing importance of what was attempted on Heimaey in 1973.

The evacuation is only half of the Vestmannaeyjar story. When the eruption ended after approximately five months, residents faced damaged infrastructure, buried streets and houses filled with ash. Around 3,600 people returned during the first stage of resettlement, and the town was cleared and rebuilt rather than abandoned. Goslokahátíð, held each year around the anniversary of the eruption’s end, remembers not only the disaster but also the return and recovery. The town visible today is therefore evidence of a deliberate decision to continue island life.

Raids, isolation and journeys across the Atlantic

The 1973 eruption is the most visible crisis in the island’s history, but it was not the first time the community endured sudden loss. In 1627, corsairs from North Africa raided Icelandic coastal settlements and attacked Vestmannaeyjar. Thirty-six islanders were killed and 242 were taken captive and transported to Algiers. The event, remembered in Iceland as Tyrkjaránið, became one of the deepest historical traumas associated with the islands.

Two lives preserve different parts of that history. The Reverend Ólafur Egilsson was captured and later released so that he could travel to Denmark and seek ransom for other prisoners; his written account remains an important contemporary record. Guðríður Símonardóttir, later known as Tyrkja-Gudda, spent years in captivity before returning to Iceland. Their stories keep the raid connected to individual experience rather than reducing it to casualty figures, while also recalling that many of those taken never returned.

Vestmannaeyjar also became the starting point for an important nineteenth-century migration. Organised Latter-day Saint missionary activity in Iceland began on the islands in 1851, and people from Heimaey were among the earliest Icelanders to emigrate to Utah. A first organised group left in 1857, followed by further departures in later decades. The Mormon monument on Heimaey commemorates those islanders whose religious conversion led them away from Iceland and into a new community across the Atlantic. In a place often described through isolation, their history reveals how widely the islanders’ lives could extend.

Puffins, cliffs and the wider archipelago

Vestmannaeyjar is one of Iceland’s most important seabird regions. The grass-covered upper slopes and high sea cliffs provide nesting ground for puffins and other birds, while the surrounding ocean supplies the food on which the colonies depend. Stórhöfði, at the southern end of Heimaey, is the principal practical place for visitors to observe puffins. A viewing shelter allows people to watch the birds with less disturbance and some protection from the wind, although sightings still depend on season, weather and the birds’ movements.

The relationship between puffins and the community is most clearly expressed through the annual rescue of pufflings. Young birds leaving their burrows can become disoriented by the lights of the town and land among streets and buildings instead of reaching the sea. Local children and families collect them, check and weigh them, and release healthy birds by the coast. The practice is not a visitor performance but a continuing part of island life, joining scientific monitoring, community knowledge and care for a species closely associated with Vestmannaeyjar.

The cliffs and offshore islands are essential to understanding the scale of the archipelago. A boat journey around Heimaey reveals sea caves, stacks and near-vertical nesting cliffs that cannot be properly understood from the town. Surtsey, which emerged in eruptions between 1963 and 1967, belongs geographically and volcanically to the Vestmannaeyjar system but stands apart from the normal visitor experience. It is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and access is strictly controlled so that scientific research can follow ecological development with minimal human interference.

Festivals and island identity

Þjóðhátíð has been held in Herjólfsdalur since 1874, when bad weather prevented islanders from travelling to the mainland celebrations marking one thousand years since Iceland’s settlement. Instead of abandoning the occasion, they created their own gathering in the sheltered valley. It developed into one of Iceland’s largest annual festivals, with music, singing, bonfires and traditions that have become closely bound to the identity of Vestmannaeyjar.

The setting is important. Herjólfsdalur lies enclosed beneath steep slopes and cliffs on the western side of Heimaey, giving the festival a physical centre unlike a temporary event ground. Outside Þjóðhátíð, the valley is one of the island’s most distinctive landscapes and an important historic area in its own right. During the festival weekend, ferry demand and accommodation pressure increase sharply, so visitors who are not attending need to plan accordingly.

Goslokahátíð expresses a different part of the same island identity. It marks the end of the Eldfell eruption and the survival of the community that returned. Together, the two festivals reveal a recurring pattern in Vestmannaeyjar: isolation or danger is not remembered only as hardship, but transformed into shared traditions that reinforce the community’s connection with Heimaey.

Reaching and exploring Heimaey

Herjólfur normally sails from Landeyjahöfn on the south coast, with the crossing taking approximately 35 minutes. Weather, waves and sediment conditions can affect the harbour, and sailings may instead operate from Þorlákshöfn, making the journey considerably longer. Timetables and ports can change with conditions, so travellers should reserve in advance and check the sailing status before leaving. Taking a car across is the most useful way to explore the island, particularly when combining the town with Stórhöfði, the southern coast and the western valleys.

A full day is the minimum worthwhile visit. It allows time for the harbour, Eldheimar, part of the town and one or two of the principal landscapes, but an overnight stay makes it possible to experience Heimaey without arranging every decision around the return ferry. Eldfell provides the clearest elevated view of the new lava, town and harbour. Skansinn connects the harbour entrance with historic defences and the edge of the 1973 lava, while Herjólfsdalur, Stórhöfði and the southern cliffs reveal very different sides of the island. A boat journey adds the offshore perspective that no road can provide.

Heimaey is exposed to Atlantic weather, and strong wind is often the main practical limitation. This matters particularly at Stórhöfði, on cliff edges and on the upper slopes of Eldfell. Conditions can change quickly, but that exposure is also part of the island’s character: the harbour, sheltered valleys, volcanic cones and open cliffs all make more sense when experienced as parts of a small island surrounded by sea.

• • • Heimaey is the only permanently inhabited island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago and had 4,518 residents on 1 January 2026.
    • The Eldfell eruption began during the night of 23 January 1973, close to the town.
    • More than 5,000 residents were evacuated by sea within hours of the eruption beginning.
    • Seawater was pumped onto the advancing lava to cool and harden parts of the flow and help protect the harbour entrance.
    • Þjóðhátíð began in Herjólfsdalur in 1874 when islanders held their own national celebration.
    • Young puffins disoriented by town lights are collected and released through the community’s annual puffling rescue.