Hrisey

Hrisey sits in the middle of Eyjafjordur and is the second largest island off Iceland, with a village of a couple of hundred people at the southern end and open heath over the rest. Hunting has been banned on the island for a long time, and the ptarmigan there have become unusually unbothered by people, walking about the village and the tracks in a way they never do on the mainland. Three marked walking routes cross the heath. The island was a quarantine station for imported livestock for decades, part of Iceland's strict controls on animal disease, and it has kept a settled, slow feel that the ferry crossing reinforces.

The landscape

• The second largest island off Iceland - a village at one end, heath over the rest.
• Ptarmigan that ignore people - the result of a long hunting ban.
• Three marked walking routes - across the open ground.
• A former quarantine station - part of the country's livestock disease controls.

When to go

June to August for birds and open services. Half a day.

What to expect

There is little to do besides walk, which is the point but disappoints some. Services are a handful of places with short seasonal hours. The ferry stops in bad weather. The heath is exposed with no shelter.

Nearby

Akureyri is up the fjord; Dalvik and Siglufjordur are north.

Key facts