Raise your hand if you haven’t dreamed of starting from scratch and moving to the most remote place on the planet. Well, if you thought seriously, you may have even gone into Google looking for isolated places or houses, in which case you have hardly come across an image similar to the cover. That tiny house in the photo is known as the “most isolated house” on the planet, and we tell you that nothing is as it seems.

The most isolated (and deserted) house. The story of this small lonely architecture on a green hillside begins when a handful of brave people decided to move to the hospitable and remote island of Elliðaey in the Vestmannaejar archipelago near Iceland’s south coast to study its fauna. This adventurous group braved the elements and survived the test of time until 1930 when the last five remaining residents decided to move to the mainland.

Finally, in the 1950s, the Elliðaey Hunting Association decided to establish a base on the island to facilitate hunting trips. However, the truth is that the house has shown no signs of hunting for decades and has become more of a cabin for adventurers than anything else.

The island and its fauna. Elliðaey (barely 0.45 km²) is one of 15 small islands called Vestman, a wild enclave exposed to the elements facing the Atlantic, cataloged as a nature reserve and conservation area, as it is an important nesting area for local seascapes. . In fact, although life may be difficult for those living on the island, they are said to have an ace up their sleeves: large numbers of gulls (a local seabird).

Can I stay tonight? Although many stories speak of it as a property of the Hunters Association, the truth is that it is. The house is actually a lonely guesthouse that is not used much, a place of visit for brave adventurers.

There’s a video on YouTube today showing the interior, decorated with wood paneling, leather seats, and pictures of explorers and other Scandinavian-looking islands on the walls. In the visual piece, we also see single beds lined up in two rooms on the upper floor.

How to get to the island? Obviously there is only one way: by sea from the south coast of Iceland. The island has a small entrance for small boats, although there is no jetty of any kind (it is recommended to go in the summer due to the tides present the rest of the year). From here, with a short climb up the rocky slope, you reach the steep plain leading to the house. Meanwhile, only one of the 15 islands in the archipelago is currently inhabited: Heimay, which is also the largest.

The “Björk house” hoax. An urban legend describes this place as the home of the famous singer. The truth is it never was. In fact, as far as we know, the artist has never set foot on the island. What happened? A mess. In 2000, the Icelandic government announced that it would give the island to the singer because he had done so much for the country. The media exaggerated the news, saying that Björk wanted to build a retreat on the remote island and was in talks with the government to establish a recording studio on Elliðaey.

In reality, Bjork never made such a request and rejected the offer. Not only that. It turns out that Björk’s “Elliðaey” is not the same candidate shown in the “world’s loneliest house” photo. Esa Elliðaey is located in Breiðafjörður in western Iceland.

Google Maps confusion. It turns out there are also two islands that visitors have tagged as “the world’s loneliest house” on Google Maps. One person mistakenly placed it on Suðurey Island. Suðurey is actually located to the south of Heimaey, while Elliðaey, the proper island where the lodge is located, is to the north.

Schedule tweets. Three years ago, YouTuber Ryan Trahan spent the night at the house after dealing with some locals who had access to the island and the house. And yes, the property is as remote as it looks in the pictures. But something happened that few people knew about until then.

At one point (minute 7:12 into the video), Trahan asks a local why the “loneliest house” on the island was built. The response he received was surprising: It is not a single house (lodge), in fact there is another smaller house nearby that was used to store various items such as ropes, old furniture, and drinking water. Even older than the “famous” one.

Therefore, the story of “the loneliest house in the world” is a little sadder than we think. It’s not a house, it’s a hostel, Björk never came close to living there and she wasn’t even as lonely as we were told.

Image | Hansueli Krapf, H0rdur.kristleifsson, Diego Delso

in Xataka | There are nine million empty homes in Japan, experiencing a bizarre housing crisis. There is a word that explains this: akiya