NatureGuide required
Vigur
Region: WestfjordsCoordinates: 66.0550° N, 22.8280° W
Vigur is a small green island in Ísafjarðardjúp in the Westfjords, reached by a boat trip of about half an hour from Ísafjörður. A single working farm harvests eider down using centuries-old methods, and summer visitors walk among nesting puffins, eiders, black guillemots, and dive-bombing Arctic terns.
Important to know
- Guide required
- Visits are made on scheduled boat tours from Ísafjörður that include a guided walk on the island.
- Seasonal access
- Boat tours and the birdlife are concentrated in the summer season.
Plan the stop
- Who it suits
- All ages
- All ages on the guided visit; the walking is gentle, though nesting Arctic terns can be aggressive and a hat is recommended.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair · Limited
- Boarding a small boat and moving on natural island paths make wheelchair access difficult.
- Limited mobility · Limited
- The island walk is gentle but on unpaved ground, after a small-boat landing.
- Sensory · Partial
- Boat travel, wind, and busy, noisy bird colonies; nesting terns can swoop close.
- Cognitive · Full
- A guided visit with a set route and hosts on the island.
Why it matters
Vigur keeps the only surviving historic windmill in Iceland, built around 1840, alongside old timber buildings and a tiny building marketed as one of Europe's smallest post offices. The island's traditional eider-down farming is one of the best-preserved examples of the practice in the country.