Látrabjarg is a 14-km long sheer cliff with an east-west direction on the northern coastline of Iceland’s second largest bay. It is Europe's largest bird cliff at 14-km long and up to 1,444-ft high, and provides nesting sites for millions of birds including approximately 40 percent of the world’s population of razorbills. For centuries, brave men were roped down the cliffs during breeding season to collect eggs, which were a regular part of the diet – along with the birds themselves. Sometimes as many as 40,000 eggs and 36,000 birds were taken.
Flatey is one of the largest of the thousands of islands in Breiðafjörður, and was an important trading post during the Middle Ages. A small hamlet on the island is mostly intact, and the remaining houses have been renovated and are occupied by their owners and their families during summer. A monastery was founded there in 1172, which made Flatey the center of culture and education in Iceland at this time. Even after the monastery was moved to Helgafell, just south of the present village Stykkishólmur on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, the cultural influence of Flatey did not diminish until the middle of the 19th century.
