Flatey, Skjálfandi

Flatey is an island in Skjálfandi bay located about 8.7 kilometers from Húsavík, in northern Iceland. Its name in Icelandic means "flat island"; its highest point is only about twenty two meters above mean sea level, hence its name. It is two and a half kilometers long and 1.7 kilometers wide. It is the fifth largest island around Iceland.

People first settled in Flatey in early historic times, but it never had a great 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.

Skjálfandi bay is an excellent place for fishing (especially cod 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.

There are only a few buildings in the island. The most important of them 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 made in 1931. The old church was replaced by a new one in 1960. The new church was actually the church of Brettingsstaðir in Flateyjardalur valley, which was taken apart and moved out to Flatey.

One of the things that attract the most tourists is the great number of bird species living there. Thirty of the thirty-seven species of bird in Iceland are found there during the breeding season - puffins, terns, whimbrels, and plovers are examples of birds found there.

Flateyjardalur valley is named after Flatey.

External links

* [http://www.gentlegiants.is/page.asp?Id=559 General information about Flatey island] .