Strange building on Icelandic island dubbed 'world's loneliest house'

On a hillside in the middle of nowhere on an island off the coast of Iceland there sits a house, and that house is surrounded by bizarre mystery and intrigue, dubbed by some as the ‘world’s loneliest house’.

That got your interest at all, then?

It sounds like the beginning of some strange Scandinavian horror film in which a group of over-adventurous teenagers travel out there to meet their doom, but it’s a real place and it looks exactly as you might imagine.

Sure, it’s a beautiful spot, but you’d struggle to get any internet reception, or even have creature comforts we take for granted such as running water or mains electricity.

Hansueli Krapf via Wikimedia Commons

The house is on the island of Elliðaey, to the south of the Icelandic mainland, and it’s been the subject of some pretty wild speculation in the years since the first viral pictures emerged.

Some believed it was the creation of an eccentric billionaire, who had decided that this was his bolthole in the event of a nuclear war or another unspecified apocalyptic event.

Others thought that the remote location was the home of some religious hermit, who had sworn to a life of solitude and contemplation.

Still others believed that the home was built for the madcap Icelandic musician Bjork and gifted to her by the Icelandic government.

Oh, and for a while there was a theory that the house had simply been photoshopped onto the island before the picture was then posted online.

Diego Delso (creative commons)

Whilst we are happy to debunk the last theory there, it is with some sadness that we also tell you that the previous three aren’t true either.

In truth, the actual function of the lonesome location is much more functional – and a little bit less cool – than that.

It’s a lodge set up by a club for puffin hunters.

Yes, the loveable and colourful birds that frequent some areas around Britain during the summer, with their bright beaks and slightly unwieldy nature.

Hunting puffins isn’t illegal in Iceland, even though the seabirds are endangered, so hunters built a lodge on the island in order to have somewhere to sleep during hunts.

It’s not clear whether it is still used as a hunting lodge, or is simply there for touristic purposes these days.

The island itself is uninhabited now, but people did live on there years ago.

Unsplash

The people who did live there actually survived on puffins, as well as through fishing and raising cows. The final full-timers left in the 1930s, and no-one has been there since.

The house was built in 1953 and the famous structure that stands there now was built by the Elliðaey Hunting Association, and served as a base for their grisly operations.

Whilst they don’t have running water, electricity, or just about any modern conveniences, they do have a sauna that is run through collected rainwater, and sits within a lovely nature reserve.

If you want to go out there, but you aren’t a member of a hunting club, there are tours to the island.