A picturesque lighthouse rests lonely on top of a jagged rock off the southwest coast of Iceland. It’s famed as the world’s most isolated lighthouse.
This is the story of Þrídrangaviti Lighthouse and how it was built.
Called the Þrídrangaviti (or Thridrangaviti) Lighthouse, the name translates as “three rock pillars”, a reference to the three rocks jutting out of the sea. The rocks all have individual names – Stóridrangur, Þúfudrangur, Klofadrangur – with the lighthouse itself on Stóridrangur.
Work began on the building in 1938 and was finished only a year later, with the world on the verge of the Second World War. While helicopters are now the easiest way to reach Þrídrangaviti, there were no such vehicles at the time, and people had to sail to the islands.
What happened next was laid out in an old interview with the project director Árni G. Þórarinsson
“The first thing we had to do was create a road up to the cliff,” Þórarinsson told Morgunblaðið, an Icelandic newspaper. “We got together experienced mountaineers, all from the Westman Islands.” The Westman Islands (or Vestmannaeyjar) is a small archipelago off the coast of Iceland, with a population now of roughly 4,300. They are the closest inhabited land to the Þrídrangaviti lighthouse.
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“Then we brought drills, hammers, chains and clamps to secure the chains,” Þórarinsson continued. “Once we got near the top there was no way to get any grip on the rock, so one of them got down on his knees, the second stood on his back, and then the third climbed on top of the other two and was able to reach the nib of the cliff above. I cannot even tell you how I was feeling whilst witnessing this incredibly dangerous procedure.”
In the end, Þórarinsson managed to form the base of a structure that now stands 24 feet (7.4 meters) high, with a lamp 100 feet (34 meters) above sea level. It can be seen from nine nautical miles away.
Long after 1939, a helipad was added to the rock of Stóridrangur. It still doesn’t make the journey to Þrídrangaviti lighthouse an easy trip, but allows maintenance workers access to the island.
The lighthouse was the setting for Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, a best-selling Icelandic thriller novelist, 2013 novel Lygi. It was translated into English in 2016 under the title Why Did You Lie?
It was also a similar remote, abandoned lighthouse setting that played house to the psychological thriller The Lighthouse, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe.
