Thridrangar Lighthouse

Thridrangaviti stands on the flat top of the largest of three rock pillars in open sea west of the Westman Islands, and its reputation rests on how it got there: in 1939 workers were landed by boat in a swell and climbed the near-vertical face with ropes and iron pegs, hauling up the materials behind them, before a foot of the building existed. There was no helicopter option then; a helipad was added much later. The light was automated and is visited now only for maintenance. From the air it is a small white building on a rock with nothing around it for kilometres, which is the whole picture and the reason it circulates online.

What you actually see

• A lighthouse on a sea stack - the largest of three pillars in open water.
• Built in 1939 by rope - workers climbed the face and hauled materials up.
• A helipad added later - the only practical access today.
• Nothing else for kilometres - open sea on every side.

When to go

May to September, when flights and boat trips operate. Part of a day.

Honest expectations

There is no way to land and no tour that offers it. Seeing it means a sightseeing flight or a boat that goes that way, both weather dependent and often cancelled. From a boat in swell the view is brief.

Nearby

Heimaey and Vestmannaeyjar town are east; Surtsey lies south-west.