Is this the loneliest house in the world? Looking at the mysterious island cottage standing on its own, the question of who lives there comes instantly to mind.
The house stands in the middle of Ellidaey, the most northeastern island in the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), located south of Iceland. The cottage is not a residential home, but a hunting lodge built by the island’s official hunting association.
Aside from the declining numbers of puffins, scarce other wildlife is found on Ellidaey, and no humans live there permanently—but this wasn’t always the case.
According to media reports, around three hundred years ago, five families made their home on the remote outcrop, living off seabirds, fish, and cattle that they raised on the green slopes. But it was a tough existence and by the 1930s, all inhabitants had deserted the island for a kinder life on the mainland.
The puffins had the island all to themselves for two decades until the hunting association arrived. In 1953 the cabin was built, relying on a generator for electricity and without modern luxuries including internet access, but with a little treat for hunting groups in the form of a reportedly impressive sauna.
The third largest island in the archipelago that consists of some 15 islands, Ellidaey is about 500 square meters (0.19 square miles) in size. It is easily accessible by boat from the mainland, which is 9 kilometers (approx. 5.5 miles) away.
But getting onto the island itself isn’t so simple. Visitors must make use of a rope to climb from their boat up to the solid ground—so only the fittest need apply.
“This is the part of the video where I can never really illustrate how scared I am,” he says in the video, “and like just how dangerous this is for someone like me who has no experience doing anything, but I have to jump off of this boat into the deathly icy waters. I hope I don’t fall.”
Trahan succeeds in catching the rope but says, “This is insane,” before climbing up the rock to spend the night in the world’s loneliest house.
