Elephant Rock

About Elephant Rock

Elephant Rock — Fíllinn in Icelandic — is a basalt formation on the coast of Heimaey, the only inhabited island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off Iceland's south coast. From the right angle it reads unmistakably as an elephant: a heavy domed head, a creased grey flank, and a trunk dipping into the North Atlantic.

The likeness comes from how the rock formed. The cliff is basalt left behind by the volcanic activity that built the islands, and columnar jointing weathered by centuries of wind and surf has given the surface a wrinkled, hide-like texture that completes the effect. Up close the stone genuinely looks like elephant skin.

It is best seen from the water. The formation faces the sea, and the angle that makes the shape work is only available from a boat, so it features on the sightseeing trips that circle Heimaey — the same tours that pass the island's sea caves and, in summer, its seabird cliffs. Vestmannaeyjar holds one of the largest Atlantic puffin colonies in the world, and the birds are usually present from roughly May to August.

Heimaey itself repays the crossing. In 1973 the Eldfell eruption opened a fissure on the edge of town, forced the evacuation of the whole population overnight and buried hundreds of houses in ash. You can walk up the cinder cone it left behind and look down over the harbour the lava came close to sealing shut. Ferries run from Landeyjahöfn on the south coast, with flights from Reykjavík as an alternative.