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Aedey Island

Region: Westfjords
Coordinates: 66.03912° N 22.6771225° W

About Aedey Island

This is the largest of four islands on the biggest bay of the Westfiords. It is about 2,2 km long and 0,8 km wide. It has been inhabited for centuries and still boasts of one farm. The island is well vegetated, does not rise high above water, lined with puffin burrows, tufted and boggy.

A part of the varied avifauna plays an important part in the survival of the inhabitants, such as the puffin catch and the eiderdown. The sheep are ferried to the mainland for the summer grazings not to disturb the precious eider ducks on their nests. A large and impressive wooden house from the late 19th century still decorates the island.

The biggest and most historic event in Aedey was when the Spaniards were trapped there at night in 1615 and killed. The Spaniards, who were actually Basques, had been whaling off the land during the summer, but became shipwrecks at Strandir. Some managed to travel to Djup and settled in Æðey. Others made it all the way west to Dyrafjordur, but were killed there. When it was heard that the Spaniards had taken Sagas of Iceland up residence in Aedey, the magistrate of Isfjordur, Ari Magnusson from Ogri, gathered a large force and went on ships to the island. There were only 5 there, but the others had gone out to Sandeyri on Snaefjallastrond to cut a whale that had drifted ashore. The Spaniards in Aedey were all killed, stripped of their clothes and the bodies thrown into the sea.