If you manage to get your fill of puffins (which took me quite a while!) just a short walk away is a pristine black sand beach, Vikin, without the crowds of its more famous big brothers, Reynisfjara and Vik, on the mainland. All three beaches formed when hot lava pouring out of a volcano met the Atlantic Ocean – the lava instantaneously cooled and shattered into black basalt pebbles, which have been slowly weathered over time into smaller and smaller particles.
Adding a further sprinkling of Icelandic wildlife, Icelandic horses roam nearby and can be ridden around Heimaey. This might not be a scientific opinion, but they have to be the cutest horse breed ever.
