The island has a rich bird life with about 30 species breeding here, such as Puffins, Guillemots, and Fulmars along its coast.

In 1988 American artist Richard Serra was invited by the National Gallery of Iceland to build a work.

[5] The sculpture consists of nine pairs of basalt columns (a material indigenous to Iceland) and placed along the periphery of Vesturey, the northwest part of the island.

It is a "Tower of Light" envisioned and built by artist Yoko Ono as a memorial to John Lennon.

According to the Associated Press: "The tower is a beam of light, radiating from a wishing well bearing the words "imagine peace" in 24 languages.

[4] In Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America, Lindbergh visits Reykjavík again in 1941, then as President of the United States, and signs a peace treaty with Adolf Hitler.

[4][7] The name is thought to reflect that it was forested upon the arrival of the first settlers (Wood Island) rather than, which is also possible, that it simply had driftwood.