The island is a part of Northeast Greenland National Park.

[2] The journal had been named after the giant Ymir, the forefather of the Jotuns in Norse mythology.

The island lies on the southern side of the entrance of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord, with the Antarctic Sound separating it from the Suess Land Peninsula.

Ymer Island's northern half forms a peninsula named Gunnar Anderson Land having its narrow isthmus in the west.

[4] The conspicuous Devil's Castle (Teufelsschloss) is located on the other side of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord, off the southern shore of Cape Petersens, the NW extremity of Ymer Island.