Flatey () is an island on

Skjálfandi Skjálfandi (; also known as Skjálfandaflói ) is a bay in northern Iceland, with some of the characteristics of a fjord. The Icelandic word ''Skjálfandi'' literally translates to ''trembling'' which may refer to earthquakes in the area. The bay ...

bay located about from

Húsavík Húsavík () is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the north coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay with 2,307 inhabitants. The most famous landmark of the town is the wooden church Húsavíkurkirkja, built in 1907. Húsavík is s ...

, in northern

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. Its name in Icelandic means "flat island"; its highest point is only about

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, hence its name. It is long and wide. It is the fifth-largest island around Iceland. The

Flateyjardalur Flateyjardalur () is a valley in northern Iceland by Skjálfandi bay on the Flateyjarskagi peninsula. The valley stretches from the coast and south to Fnjóskadalur valley. Flateyjardalur is named after the island of Flatey, which lies just off ...

coast and Flateyjardalsheiði valley are named after Flatey.

History

People first settled in Flatey in early historic times, but it never had a large population. The highest number of inhabitants was reached in 1942, when there were 120 people. As other villages and cities nearby grew, it was very difficult for Flatey to compete with them, and people started to leave the island and, in 1967, there were no inhabitants left. Now it is only inhabited seasonally, during summer, and many tourists visit the island in this time. There are only a few buildings on the island, the most important of which are: a schoolhouse built in 1929, an ancient church shut down in 1884, a lighthouse built in 1913 and rebuilt in 1963 and a radiotelegraph built in 1931. The old church was replaced in 1960 by the church of Brettingsstaðir in Flateyjardalur, which was taken apart and moved out to Flatey.

Environment

Skjálfandi bay is an excellent place for fishing, especially for

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

and lumpfish, so it is from the sea that most inhabitants take their living. The soil is very fertile, so they also practice agriculture. The inhabitants are completely autonomous, and almost all they do is for their own consumption. Every house had a cow for milking and some sheep and hens. One of the things that attract the most tourists is the great number of bird species to be found on the island. Thirty of the thirty-seven species of bird in Iceland are found there during the breeding season:

puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s, Eurasian whimbrels, and

plover Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfa ...

s are examples.

References

External links

General information about Flatey island
{{Coord, 66, 09, 54, N, 17, 51, 35, W, region:IS_type:isle, display=title Islands of Iceland