Puffins of Grimsey & the Westfjords

Grimsey Island sits directly on the Arctic Circle, a small outpost reached by boat from northern Iceland, and its clifftop puffin colonies are the opening act in this six-day circuit through some of the country’s densest seabird cities, closing with the equally dramatic cliffs of the Westfjords.

Iceland holds a significant share of the entire world’s Atlantic puffin population, and the burrow-nesting colonies on Grimsey and along the Westfjord cliffs are among the reasons why the country carries such outsized importance for the species’ global conservation status. Arctic terns, the other headline species at Grimsey, complete the longest migration of any animal on earth, travelling pole to pole between Arctic breeding grounds and Antarctic waters each year, which makes their fierce defence of a single small nesting patch on this tiny island feel entirely earned given the distance each bird has just covered to get here. Guillemots on the Westfjord cliffs nest in such dense, vertical colonies that a single ledge can hold hundreds of birds packed shoulder to shoulder, laying distinctively pointed eggs that are shaped, evolutionarily, to roll in a tight circle rather than off the cliff edge entirely.

After arriving in Akureyri, the crossing to Grimsey sets up two full days on the island itself — a deliberately generous allocation, since the colonies here reward repeat visits as light and activity shift through the day. Puffins, razorbills and Arctic terns crowd the clifftops in a dense, noisy jumble that photographers can work from multiple angles and distances across two days rather than rushing a single pass. The terns in particular are worth the extra time: having migrated from Antarctic waters to breed here, they are fiercely protective of their nesting ground and will dive at anyone who strays too close, a genuinely memorable (if occasionally hair-raising) part of the Grimsey experience.

The trip then transfers to Ísafjörður in the Westfjords, gateway to a different but equally impressive set of seabird cliffs, where a full day is spent photographing dense colonies of puffins and guillemots along towering rock faces that plunge straight into the North Atlantic — a landscape as striking as the birds themselves.

Running from May through July, the trip is timed to the height of Iceland’s seabird breeding season, when puffin burrows are active, tern colonies are at their most numerous and defensive, and the near-endless daylight of the Icelandic summer extends photography opportunities well into what would elsewhere be considered night.

Grimsey’s remoteness means transport options are limited to a short flight or a longer ferry crossing, and operators experienced with the island build enough buffer time into the schedule to absorb the occasional weather delay without cutting into the two full days set aside for the colonies themselves. The Westfjords leg that follows benefits from guides who know exactly which stretches of cliff face are most active at any given point in the season, since colony activity along such an extended coastline can vary considerably from one headland to the next.

This itinerary suits birders and photographers with a specific interest in seabird colonies and cliff-edge photography, offering two genuinely distinct settings — an isolated Arctic Circle island and the sweeping cliffs of the Westfjords — within a single compact week, without the additional time commitment of Hornstrandir’s fox-focused expedition further into the reserve.