Iceland
Hrisey is the second-largest island in Eyjafjordur, the longest fjord in northern Iceland, and yet its population barely exceeds 150 — a ratio of space to people that makes this small island, just seven kilometres long and 2.5 wide, feel like a private domain of birdlife, wildflowers, and the quiet that descends on Icelandic communities when the wind drops. The island sits in the middle of the fjord like a green stepping stone between the mountains of the mainland, its gentle terrain — unusual for Iceland, which tends toward the dramatic — covered in grasslands and Arctic meadow that support one of the densest ptarmigan populations in Iceland, a fact that earned Hrisey the nickname "the Pearl of Eyjafjordur."
The village of Hrisey, clustered around the southern harbour where the ferry from Dalvik arrives, is a collection of brightly painted houses, a small church, and the kind of community where everyone knows everyone and the arrival of a cruise ship Zodiac constitutes a significant social event. The House of Shark Jorundur, a museum dedicated to the island's most famous 19th-century resident — a fisherman and shark hunter whose exploits became local legend — documents the traditional Greenland shark fishing that sustained Icelandic coastal communities for centuries. The fermented shark meat (hakarl) that resulted from this industry remains Iceland's most notorious culinary specialty, its ammonia-sharp aroma and acquired-taste flavour challenging even the most adventurous palates.
The birdlife of Hrisey is remarkable. The island's absence of terrestrial predators — no foxes, no mink, no rats — has made it a sanctuary for ground-nesting Arctic birds whose populations have declined on the mainland. The ptarmigan, Iceland's national bird, is so common on Hrisey that the island has been used as a research site for ptarmigan population dynamics for decades. During the summer nesting season, eider ducks, Arctic terns, and oystercatchers breed on the island's shores and meadows, while the surrounding fjord waters host feeding gangs of puffins, guillemots, and the great northern divers whose eerie calls echo across the still water on calm summer evenings.
Hrisey's position in Eyjafjordur provides a natural platform for viewing the fjord's mountainous surroundings. The mainland peaks rise to over 1,000 metres on both sides of the fjord, their slopes striped with snow even in midsummer. Akureyri, Iceland's second-largest town and the "Capital of the North," lies at the fjord's southern end — a compact, culturally active settlement of 19,000 whose botanical garden, the northernmost in the world, manages to coax an impressive diversity of plants to flower at 65 degrees north latitude. Whale watching from Dalvik and Husavik, on the eastern shore of the fjord, offers sightings of humpback whales, minke whales, and the occasional blue whale — the world's largest animal, which feeds in these waters during the summer months.
Hrisey is visited by Seabourn and Silversea on Iceland circumnavigation itineraries, with passengers landing by Zodiac at the village harbour. The visiting season runs from June through August, with July offering the warmest temperatures and the peak of the breeding bird season. The midnight sun provides continuous daylight from late May through mid-July, creating an ethereal quality of never-ending golden twilight that transforms the simple act of walking the island's paths into something magical.