Heimaey

Heimaey - darkometer rating : 3 - Heimaey is the name of the largest and only inhabited island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago ("Westman Islands" in English) just off the south coast of Iceland – and also the name of its only settlement ata busy fishing harbour. The island qualifies as a dark-tourism destination thanks to the dramatic volcanic eruptions of 1973, which covered part of the town in thick layers of lava and ash and expanded the territory of the island through the creation of new land to its east. An excavation project "unearthing" one of the houses covered by the lava and ash of 1973 has yielded the unique museum called " Eldheimar ", which opened some 40 years after the eruption and uses the clever slogan "Pompei of the North". It is now the No.1 dark attraction on Heimaey. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The name of the archipelago goes back to the earliest history of Iceland , when Norsemen brought with them Gaelic slaves from Ireland , which in Norse was called ‘West Island’. This has stuck in Icelandic and so the archipelago remains named after the “west men” … even though they came from much further east. There’s another incident involving slavery in the island’s history, namely when pirates from North Africa under Ottoman command raided Heimaey and took a large part of the population with them to sell as slaves in Algiers . Only one is known to have ever returned (and wrote a book about it). The place where the hostile attackers landed is still known as “Pirate Cove”. Even without such outside intruders causing terror, life had long been extremely difficult for the islanders.