Westfjords Nature Reserves

Hornstrandir

Hornstrandir is the Westfjords' northernmost peninsula — 580 km² of sea cliffs, tundra and fjords with no roads, no shops and no permanent residents since the 1950s. It is reached by scheduled summer boats from Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík, and it is the stronghold of Iceland's protected arctic fox, which has learned that hikers are harmless and occasionally worth inspecting. Hornbjarg, the bird cliff at the peninsula's northern tip, is one of Iceland's biggest seabird cliffs. Everything you need comes in on your back: there are no services, rivers are unbridged, and the boat schedule is the only clock that matters.