Loneliest House in World, Island of Ellirey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland

The Loneliest House in the World is located at the group of beautiful remote islands off of the southern coast of Iceland called the Vestmannaeyjar. And in that archipelago, there’s a beautiful island called Elliðaey, and on that island, there’s a single, solitary mysterious log cabin that has generated wild speculation as to its purpose ever since photos of it first surfaced on the internet.

The island was inhabited roughly three hundred years ago by five families that subsisted by fishing, hunting puffins, and raising cattle. By the 1930s, however, the last permanent inhabitants had left their tiny homes. Some speculated that the island had been donated to famous Icelandic singer Bjork (which it wasn’t), while others thought it was home to an eccentric billionaire (which it wasn’t). The pedestrian truth is that the tiny house serves the purpose of a hunting cabin and a sauna for a local hunting association, which hunts puffins on the off-the-grid island.

                             

On a remote, deserted, island in the Vestmannaejar archipelago just off Iceland’s south coast sits a lonely, solitary white house on the side of a green hill. Exposed to the elements and facing the wild Atlantic waves that crash upon the rocks, this appears to be the most remote home in the world. The island is Elliðaey, and the image of the small, isolated house has given rise to a whole host of theories about who lives there. Over recent years, Elliðaey has been featured in countless reports and articles, fuelling speculation about the island and the owner of its mysterious house

Even Some have even speculated that the house doesn’t exist at all and that it has simply been photo-shopped onto images of the island in order to cook up an interesting story. Although a handful of families are known to have lived on the island from the 18th century, it has been completely uninhabited since the 1930s. Life for the small number of people who braved the elements here in the 18th and 19th centuries was grueling and lonely, and they lived primarily on fish and puffin, Elliðaey’s principal food source.

 

Eventually, in the 1930s, the remaining five inhabitants decided that their prospects would be much improved by moving to the mainland, and the island has lain empty ever since. Where, then, did the white house come from? Although life on Elliðaey was difficult, it did offer one advantage: a ready and ample supply of puffins, and former residents and neighbors did return to the island periodically in order to hunt. In the 1950s, the Elliðaey Hunting Association decided to build a base on the island to make these trips easier.

The Elliðaey Hunting Association continues to maintain the white house as a hunting lodge to support their activities during expeditions to hunt puffins on the island. While it might appear to be an idyllic retreat from the world, the little white house lacks electricity, running water and even indoor plumbing. However, it does boast its own sauna, essential after a long day of hunting, which is fed by a natural rainwater collection system.

it remains heaven for bird life. In addition to the many puffins that live on the island, Elliðaey is also a major nesting area for storm petrels and other sea birds. For this reason, it is officially listed as a nature reserve and a protected area. Tour companies operating in the Vestmannaejar peninsula offer day trips to this beautiful, wild location, but for the time being, the little white house, and the rest of the island remains unoccupied.