Visiting the Loneliest House in the World: The Story of Elliðaey Island

If you take a boat trip during your visit to the Westman Islands, you’re likely to see a tiny white house perched on a grassy plateau high above the ocean. It sits, isolated and enigmatic, on the island of Elliðaey, but what’s its story?

Elliðaey is the northernmost island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, yet despite its relative proximity to the mainland it remains pretty much untouched by people. That has a lot to do with its geography: vertiginous cliffs rise from the waves and even on the plateau, the slope shelves steeply. It’s not hard to see why there isn’t a settlement of significant size here; the logistics would be challenging to say the least.

Yet there is that one house, so why is it here? It’s been nicknamed the loneliest house in the world, and certainly it has a good claim in terms of Iceland itself. With blue skies overhead, it looks idyllic and if you’ve only seen it in photos you could be forgiven for thinking they’ve have been created using artificial intelligence. But it isn’t too good to be true: it really does exist.

Though the Elliðaey house would make the ideal retreat for anyone seeking seclusion and a break from the outside world, it actually serves a different purpose. While the property would definitely suit a rich recluse, in fact, the Elliðaey Hunting Association owns the place. They constructed it in the 1950s as a base for those who wished to partake in longer hunting trips. 

You may be wondering, therefore, why you’ve read about it being the home of kooky Icelandic singer Björk. That’s because this Elliðaey isn’t the only one in Iceland. There’s another in Breiðafjörður, the wide fjord that separates the Westfjords and the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Back in 2000, the Icelandic government owned the island but it wanted to offload it to her. 

The press reported a comment from the then prime minister Davíð Oddsson. In a speech to the Alþing he said that the singer could live on Elliðaey free of charge though she never took up the offer. Many people who read this comment didn’t realise that the news was about an entirely different Elliðaey – perhaps an easy mistake to make given how perfect the island we’re talking about would have been.

Actually, the Elliðaey house isn’t the only building on the island, though the other is a smaller and much simpler place. It predates the hunting lodge and was most likely used by scientists studying the island’s nature – though it’s not really clear how. Probably it was used for storage. 

If you catch the ferry over to Vestmannaeyjar from the mainland as many visitors do, you should be able to catch sight of the loneliest house in the world while onboard. Taking a sightseeing boat trip from Heimaey is another good way to view the Elliðaey house. Although you can see it on a clear day from Heimaey itself, nothing beats seeing it from the water. From this vantage point you really get a sense of the scale of the place and the isolated locale. 

Nevertheless given the proximity of the Elliðaey house to Heimaey it’s easy to incorporate it into your Westman Islands sightseeing. Even if you’ve chosen to come to Vestmannaeyjar only for a day trip, it’s still possible to combine a boat trip to see the Elliðaey house (and in summer birds such as puffins) with land-based activities such as one of our ATV rides. But however long your visit lasts, you’re going to want to take a look at the loneliest house in the world.