It has such a mundane history that it is fascinating.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, off the southern coast of Iceland, there is a solitary building framed in a postcard setting whose image probably sounds familiar to you because it has been photographed to death: it is a small, lonely white house planted in the middle of a rock, surrounded by intense green grass and vertical cliffs that reveal a rough sea and majestic snow-capped mountains in the background. Of course, the house and the island exist: it is not a montage.

It is often referred to as “the loneliest house in the world“and around her there are legends like that the singer Björk lived there, that there lived a religious hermit and until it was a billionaire’s idea to flee there in the face of an eventual zombie apocalypse (all false). And one thing is certain: although the idea of ​​the loneliest house in the world sounds exaggerated and difficult to measure, in practice it is close. If it is not the most isolated, it is not missing much. Of course, the reality around it is much more modest and yet interesting: It’s a hunting lodge.now in disuse.

A house in the middle of nowhere. Because technically it is not a house, but a hunting lodge that built the Elliðaey Hunting Association in 1953 to provide shelter to its members during the hunting seasons of the puffina most picturesque bird that nests on the island. In 2017, an Icelander named Bjarni Sigurdsson went there to document what was in a video and the truth is that the inventory is quite modest and functional: bunk beds, a room with a long wooden table with chairs, kitchen, radio, candles, refrigerator… come on, a Scandinavian mountain refuge.

The shelter does not have an electrical connection to any external electrical network or running water, plumbing or of course the internet. The water comes from a rainwater system and the energy comes from propane gas that has to be transported there. Of course, like good Icelanders, It has its sauna. The best thing in the world after spending several hours exposed to the cold polar wind from the Atlantic. As a curiosity, on the island there is another construction older and much smaller, probably used as a warehouse by research teams studying the nature of the place.

Hansueli Krapf

Where Christ lost the lighter. The building is in Elliðaey the northeasternmost island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago (called the Vestman Islands or Westman Islands), about eight kilometers off the south coast of Iceland. The archipelago is made up of 18 islets of volcanic origin originated in the last 12,000 yearswhich in geological terms makes them “newborn” territory. The largest island and the only one currently inhabited is Heimaey, with about 4,400 inhabitants. From there on clear days you can see Elliðaey.

With just 45 hectares, to give us an idea, Elliðaey has an area similar to that of the Vatican. And its almost vertical cliffs, its sloping plateau and the absence of any port or docking area make getting there impractical: you have to jump from a boat and then climb to reach the meadow, as Bjarni Sigurdsson’s excursion documents. This Iceland tourist guide reflects the difficulty of getting there due to its remote location, the lack of a port and the protection provided by the Icelandic government, since it is classified as a protected area.

The island is abandoned. Today no one lives there, but Elliðaey was not always empty. The book “Iceland Adventure Guide” is mentioned that in the past there were fishing camps scattered throughout the island and that there were up to three farms, so that 17 people and 258 sheep and even cows lived there. This census continued until the 20th century: in 1920 there were only five people and around that period Olafur Jonsson and his family became the first fox breeders on the islands.

A cycle of precarious occupation, dependent on the sea and the climate that was slowly exhausted. Finally, in the 1930s it became uninhabited. Two decades later, the Hunting Association built the refuge. That void between the last inhabitant and the white cabin is, perhaps, what gives the image its very particular character: it is neither an abandoned house nor a new house, but something in between, a place that was once human, stopped being human, and became human again in the most minimalist way possible.

Getting there is quite an adventure, so it’s best to see it from the boat. Diego Delso

What is it for today?. We have already seen the concrete and unglamorous function of the hut for which it was built: it is a hunting base for the puffin. Puffin hunting is a centuries-old tradition in the Westman Islands, where the bird has historically been a source of food and continues to be practiced in a regulated manner.

Of course, puffin populations have been in decline for years in several areas of Iceland due to the change in ocean conditions and the reduction of their food source, so hunting is becoming increasingly residual. Snopes concludes It is not clear that hunters continue to use the refuge and there are no signs of hunting. In practice, today it is probably more of a tourist attraction than a hunting refuge.

Björk’s story. That the Icelandic singer lives there or even owns it is one of the most widespread rumors because, well, the Prime Minister of Iceland sowed the seed: the island was (and is) state property, but the then top leader Davíð Oddsson declared that he was willing to give her the island and build a house for Björk to live there rent-free as a sign of gratitude for her work for the benefit of the country and its people. Of course, the island was not “our” Elliðaey (the one with “the loneliest house in the world”), but another Elliðaey, which is in Breiðafjörður. According to the Irish Examinerthe singer turned down the island’s offer because she didn’t want her home to become a tourist attraction.

In Xataka | A century ago Denmark built an island to defend its capital. Now it is full of tourists and is sold for ten million

In Xataka | For the first time in history there are mosquitoes in Iceland. And it was assumed that they couldn’t get there

Cover | Hansueli Krapf