History of the Kollafjörður Islands: Akurey, Engey and Lundey
Iceland has a lot to explore for sure, but you don’t need to look very far for wildlife, mystery and history! The capital Reykjavík has just that and it’s right on the horizon. If you walk along the coast or go by the Sun Voyager, you will see a set of islands that may look barren and quiet, but if curiosity has the better of you, come aboard our vessels to find out what they hide and have to offer!
Kollafjörður
Located inside Faxaflói, the largest bay of Iceland, compressed between the peninsulas of Seltjarnarnes in the south and Kjalarnes in the north, Kollafjörður is a fjord where we can find 5 islands, a mountain and the capital of Iceland, Reykjavík. Those 5 islands being: Akurey, Engey, Lundey, Þerney and Viðey. Geologically speaking it’s part of a volcano’s caldera too that created the islands that are going to be mentioned. The mountain Esja sits on the north-eastern part of this fjord, the highest point being 914m above sea level and it’s the mountain that “belongs” to Reykjavík! Every town has its own mountain or hill but more on that on another blog!
Map of Kollafjörður and its islands - from map.is
This fjord is full of history and life, either animal or plant, geological or historical, Kollafjörður has a bit of everything. On this blog we’re going to approach each island’s role on this fjord and a bit more!
Starting with Akurey, an island that is filled with bird life and some political controversy too. Since 2019 this piece of land is considered a nature reserve, the first one within Reykjavík. It has an area of about 0.5 hectares so it’s not a big island for human settlement. Well, you don’t know Icelanders, they see a piece of land and claim it! The earliest record of this island dates to 1379 when it belonged to Vikurkirkja and the first navigational beacon in Reykjavík was erected there in 1854. It was then bought by the city and in 2005 the Independence Party’s city council proposed that Akurey and Engey to be connected by land filling and planned development like they did in Grandi but fortunately this never happened. Now, its status protects the island and it's home to several species of birds and plants. The most famous bird of all is the Atlantic puffin, of course, with a colony of ~15.000 breeding pairs on this tiny island! Other species of birds include the common eider, greylag goose, great and lesser black-backed gulls, Northern fulmar and a small colony of Arctic terns. We are also able to see great cormorants mixed with European shags bathing in the sun on the western part, the occasional mallard and a few black-legged kittiwakes. To the south of it there’s a shallow channel called Hólmasund, where smalls boats can pass and occasionally big ones too if the tide is high enough. This area is also inserted in the Nature Reserve protected area and we can witness lots of ducklings and goslings crossing this shallow passage so it’s important to respect the speed and be aware of these cute tiny little birds. There are a few rocks that can be approached during high tide, and we can make eye contact with the mighty puffin but carefully because they get scared easily! At low tide, the kelp forest surrounding the island becomes visible, sometimes revealing a fish or two.
Pufferazzis at high tide on Akurey by Pedro Teixeira
Akurey is also part of the yearly puffin survey where they check a small part of the burrows to see how they are doing and make an estimate of the population’s status, having 12 monitored colonies around Iceland. If you’re close enough to the island, you’ll be able to see small black sticks with a metal marking on top for each burrow. They check for eggs, chick health and parents’ presence or absence. They do this by using a 2 meter long cable with an infrared camera on the tip to not disturb the birds. Then they do the checklist and to not check the same burrow they put a bit of grass on top and move on.
Elding legend Rodrigo Catalan using an infra-red camera cable to look inside a burrow by Gone Feral
Next on the list is Engey, another island filled with history and wildlife! This is the only island with puffins but not considered a protected reserve. It has about 500 breeding pairs and growing! This is due to the population pressure of Akurey that overspills to Engey, creating the most recent puffin colony of Reykjavík. Engey is the 3rd largest island in Kollafjörður being 1.7km long and 400 meters wide. It has not so tall cliffs, but good enough for a small population of Northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes that call it their home. At high tide we can almost look inside some of the burrows dug by puffins and see them pop in and out to check on you! As the summer progresses, we can see nests being built, eggs being laid, chicks being hatched and even take their first flight. Unfortunately, we only get to see a small part of the puffin life, watching parents dive bomb to try to escape the skuas while bringing fish inside the burrow. The common eider also nests on this island, as well as great and lesser black-backed gulls, herring gulls, glaucous gulls and even brent geese. But this piece of dirt and rock has more history than you think.
Engey is the island that you can see from the capital’s seashore and no you can’t drive
there. It means “pasture island”, a clue that tells us that crops and or hay may have been cultivated in the past. Its first reference comes in the Saga of Njáll, written around 1300. Between 1379 and 1765 there was also a church on the island. In the 19th century, Engey was home to a family of boatbuilders, the Engeyjarætt, who developed a new and more efficient type of fishing boat, making it more stable too and with better sailing rigs. This family is still well known having more than 5000 descendants to this date, including a former prime minister of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson (1963-1970). Its most famous story is about World War II where a fort was built to guard the entrance of the Reykjavík Harbour. There’s also an underground command post. The island was abandoned shortly after the end of the war. In 1966 all the remaining buildings were burned down, and the island’s property was transferred to the government in 1978.
Hard landing by a puffin on Engey by Pedro Teixeira
On these two islands, there several plant species that we can see during the summer. As the bird life begins to arrive, we see the yellow and brown give place to the lush green from the grass, bright yellow, purple and white from all the flowers growing next to the puffin burrows. These flowers can be angelica, dandelions, marsh marigold, wood cranesbill, false mayweed and the infamous arctic lupine.
Lundey is the perfect example of a colony of puffins, it’s in the name! It means “puffin
island” and houses about 10.000 breeding pairs of puffins. Lundey is a particular island that depending on the tide height we can adapt to it. If it’s low tide, we can see the birds going near the rocks like the common eiders, purple sandpipers and Eurasian oystercatchers, sometimes we’re able to see a seal or two bathing in the sun, a small kelp forest, the many puffins on the water socializing and also on the southern side we can see the cliff of many burrows made by our feathered friends and the many black-legged kittiwake and Northern fulmar nests on the cliff’s edge. During high tide it’s easy to approach the island, especially on the Northern side where there’s a “balcony” that is always full of puffins! Black guillemots are a common sight as well as the elusive shelduck. In 2021 it joined the list of Nature Reserves in Reykjavík. By being the smallest island, it looks like it has a lot more life than it supposed to, so it never disappoints. There isn’t any record of inhabitants on this island, only the yearly puffin census leaves a mark on this island in the form of little sticks to mark each burrow on a small patch of the island. And no, we don’t know how that water tank got there. Like Akurey and Engey, the plant life doesn’t disappoint! You will see many dandelions, marsh marigold, garden angelica, wood cranesbill but incredibly no lupines! Unfortunately, it is not permitted to set foot on the island, so you better bring a good lens to the tour!
Top of the cliff on Lundey by Pedro Teixeira
To find out more about these puffin islands, we have puffin tours running from mid-April until mid-August, coinciding with the arrival and departure of our parrots of the sea. We have expert guides onboard there are happy to answer all your questions and doubts about birds, seals, plants and even the history of these islands!
Pedro Teixeira
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