Papey Island, Church (6956840255)

Papey () is an island near the east coast of

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 ...

in the municipality Djúpavogshreppur and is about in extent, the highest point on the island being about above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The island was inhabited from the

settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle ...

until 1966. There still is a lighthouse, a dwelling house, a church and a

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

on the island, the latter automated since 1998. There are also large colonies of

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...

s on the island. Papey is said to be named after the monks called

Papar The Papar (; from Latin ''papa'', via Old Irish, meaning "father" or "pope") were, according to early Icelandic sagas, Irish monks who took eremitic residence in parts of what is now Iceland before that island's habitation by the Norsemen of S ...

and it is mentioned in the

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and over ...

as one of two places where these monks lived. The story in Landnámabók is that as

Ingólfr Arnarson Ingólfr Arnarson, in some sources named Bjǫrnólfsson, ( – ) is commonly recognized as the first permanent Norse settler of Iceland, together with his wife and foster brother Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson. According to tradition, they settled ...

and his followers had lived during the winter at Geithellar in

Álftafjörður The name Álftafjörður () is Icelandic for "swan fjord", and there are some fjords by this name in Iceland. The best known of these are: *Álftafjörður (Westfjords). This fjord is located on the southern side of Ísafjarðardjúp, in the ...

at a distance from Papey, some of his women followers climbed a mountain in the spring and saw smoke from the island. When they later got a closer look and found special items there, they understood that the smoke had to have been from Papar (or quote: " Vestmen") inhabitants. There are also some

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

s on the island (aside from the island's name itself) indicating Papar monks were living there.

Archaeological survey In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human c ...

s on the island and in the area surrounding Djúpavogur, especially between 1970 and 1980, did not show any evidence of any monk settlement. There was, however, evidence of Norse settlements. Some of these surveys were led by the then-

president of Iceland The president of Iceland ( is, Forseti Íslands) is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, who is now in his second term as president, elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir as ...

, Dr.

Kristján Eldjárn Kristján Eldjárn (; 6 December 1916 – 14 September 1982) was the third president of Iceland, from 1968 to 1980. Biography Kristján was born in Tjörn, Svarfaðardal, Iceland. His parents were Þórarinn Kr. Eldjárn, a teacher in Tjörn, ...

. {{Coord, 64, 35, 30, N, 14, 10, 00, W, display=title, region:IS_type:isle Islands of Iceland