Vigur Island

Vigur is a long thin island in the Isafjardardjup fjord system, big enough for one farm and not much else. The farm has been worked for generations around eider ducks: the birds nest in sheltered scrapes across the island, and once they leave the down is gathered from the nests, cleaned and sold, a slow business that keeps the whole place quiet through early summer. Boats run out from Isafjordur and visitors walk a fixed route with a guide, past the puffin burrows at the southern end, the eider ground, a small black windmill built in the nineteenth century and a boathouse holding an old rowing boat.

What you actually see

• The eider ground - nesting ducks and the down collection that has supported the farm for generations.
• The puffin slopes - burrows dug into the turf at the southern end of the island.
• The windmill - a small black nineteenth-century mill, a rarity in a country that built very few.
• The boat run - the crossing through Isafjardardjup, with a chance of seals and porpoises.

When to go

June and July, when the eiders are on their nests, the puffins are ashore and boats run daily. Puffins begin leaving in early August and trips wind down soon after. Sailings depend on conditions in the fjord, and casual landing is not allowed, so the visit has to be booked as a boat trip rather than improvised.

Honest expectations

This is a working farm and the route is fixed, so there is no wandering off on your own. The visit is short once the boat fare is counted. Terns nest beside the path and strike at heads through June. A cruise call at Isafjordur can put a large group onto a very small island at once, which undoes the quiet that is the main reason to come.

Nearby

Isafjordur and the fjord roads around Isafjardardjup are the mainland end of the trip.