Flateyri

Flateyri sits on a spit in Onundarfjordur below a steep mountainside, and in October 1995 an avalanche came off that slope into the village at night and killed twenty people. The response was a pair of enormous earth barriers, built in an A shape above the houses to split and divert any future slide, and they now define the place visually - the village is read against them from every angle. Below, the old bookshop has traded since 1914 and is among the oldest shops of any kind in Iceland still in its original premises, with the family's living quarters preserved upstairs.

What you actually see

• The 1995 avalanche - twenty people killed in the village at night.
• Barriers above the houses - built in an A shape to split a slide.
• A bookshop since 1914 - among the oldest original shop premises in the country.
• Living quarters upstairs - preserved above the shop.

When to go

June to September; the Westfjords roads are hard in winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The avalanche is recent history with survivors and relatives living here, so it is treated locally as loss rather than as an attraction. Shops and services keep short seasonal hours. The village is small and quiet.

Nearby

Sudureyri is over the pass; Isafjordur is east.