Flatey Island

About Flatey Island

Flatey Island is a low, grassy island in the middle of Breiðafjörður, the wide bay between Snæfellsnes and the Westfjords, and stepping off the ferry feels like walking into another century. There are no cars, a single road and an old village of brightly painted wooden houses, most of them lived in only during summer.

At about two kilometers long and one wide, Flatey lives up to its name, which means flat island. It was once one of Iceland's cultural centers, with a monastery founded in 1172 and, later, a busy trading post. The island gave its name to Flateyjarbók, the largest of the medieval Icelandic manuscripts, which was kept here for centuries and returned to Iceland from Denmark in 1971.

A loop around the island takes an hour or two at an easy pace. Stop at the church from 1926, whose interior was painted by the Catalan artist Baltasar Samper, and at the tiny library next to it, founded in 1864 and said to be the oldest in Iceland. In summer, part of the island is a protected nesting area for puffins, Arctic terns and other seabirds, so stay on the paths.

The Baldur ferry sails between Stykkishólmur and Brjánslækur with a stop in Flatey, and the whole crossing takes about two and a half hours. In summer, you can get off for a few hours and continue on a later sailing; if you're traveling with a car, staff will take it across while you explore. Schedules change by season and the service is sometimes suspended, so check ferja.is before you plan around it.