- Where
- Atlantic Ocean
south-westernmost of the Canary Islands - Coordinates
- 27.75° N
18.00° W - Area
- About 268 km²
highest point Malpaso, 1,501 m - People
- 11,659 (2023 estimate)
- Protected
- UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, 2000
UNESCO Global Geopark, 2014 - Getting there
- Ferry from Los Cristianos, Tenerife, about 2 h 30
or a 40-minute flight from Tenerife North - Best visited
- Year-round
The junipers had been out in the wind so long that they grew lying down, every branch pointing downwind, like hair after a gale. Below them black lava tumbled seaward into a frill of white surf, and behind me cloud kept pouring over the ridge and vanishing into thin air. I leaned the way the trees did. It helped.
The short answer
El Hierro is the southernmost and westernmost of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, Wikipedia records. At about 268 square kilometres it is the second-smallest of the eight inhabited Canary Islands, and Spain’s statistics institute put its population at 11,659 in 2023. Its capital, Valverde, stands inland at 571 metres, the only Canarian capital not by the sea. The island has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2000, with building limited to two floors, and in 2014 UNESCO declared it a Global Geopark, the first in the Canaries, geoconservation researchers record.
Why it's worth knowing
The Meridian Island. In 1634 France, under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, decided that its maps should count longitude from El Hierro, then taken as the westernmost land of the Old World, Wikipedia records, citing the Spanish daily ABC. The geographer Guillaume Delisle later rounded the line to exactly 20 degrees west of Paris, by the account the Paris Observatory’s director gave at the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, which chose Greenwich instead. The national survey networks of Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia were still fixing a Ferro meridian in the 1920s, Wikipedia records, and the island is still nicknamed the Meridian Island.
A young volcano. El Hierro emerged about 1.2 million years ago and has more volcanic cones than any other Canary Island, over 500 with some 300 more buried, plus about 70 caves and lava tubes, by the island government’s figures that Wikipedia cites. In October 2011 a submarine eruption began a few kilometres off La Restinga, the southern fishing village, after months of earthquakes; the village’s 600 people were evacuated for weeks, El País reported. About 15,000 years ago the north of the island collapsed into the sea in the El Golfo landslide, which left the great curved bay of that name, by the estimates of the geologists Wikipedia cites.
The field notes
Junipers that grow lying down
At El Sabinar, on the high western plateau of La Dehesa, an open wood of junipers, sabinas, has been twisted by the constant trade winds into shapes that grow almost parallel to the ground, the Canary Islands’ tourism board describes; some trees are fenced to protect them. The juniper is the island’s official plant symbol under Canary law, and its animal symbol is the El Hierro giant lizard, Gallotia simonyi, a critically endangered reptile found only here and kept going by a captive-breeding programme, Wikipedia records.
An island run on wind and water
Gorona del Viento, opened in 2015, pairs five wind turbines with a pumped-storage system: surplus wind power pumps water up 700 metres into a reservoir in an extinct volcanic crater, and the water runs back down through turbines when the wind drops. It met 46.5 per cent of the island’s electricity demand in 2017, the University of Bologna’s energy blog reported, and an independent analysis on Euan Mearns’s energy blog found it met all demand from 25 January to 12 February 2018, both as Wikipedia cites them.
La Restinga, at the southern tip, is the southernmost settlement in Spain and the port for the island’s diving. It is also the landing point on El Hierro for boats crossing the Atlantic from West Africa: most of those reaching the Canaries in 2024 had set out from Mauritania, at least 762 kilometres from El Hierro, the nearest Canary Island, NPR reported in January 2025.
El Golfo from Malpaso, the island's highest point.
Photograph: Victor R. Ruiz · El Golfo - WLE Spain 2015 · CC BY 2.0
Charco Azul, a sea pool under a lava arch on the north coast.
Photograph: Areuland · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Punta de Orchilla and its lighthouse, on the island's western tip.
Photograph: Pepelopex · Orchilla-El Pinar-El Hierro · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
Las Playas, a natural monument on the east coast.
Photograph: Puusterke · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Ropy pāhoehoe lava on the south coast.
Photograph: Jose Mesa · Pahoehoe Lava on El Hierro in Spain 06 · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
- Take a warm layer to the high ground in every season. The cloud comes over the ridge cold and quickly.
- Attempt the list outdoors. Fetch it back out of a bush. Attempt it again indoors.
- Keep your boots to the marked trail among the twisted trees, and leave the fenced ones to the wind.
- Bathe in the rock pools the islanders use, and ask them about the sea before you get in.
- Drive the high road slowly at dusk, and stop on the rim while the village lamps blink awake in the bay below.
El Golfo. The great curved wall of cliffs on El Hierro’s north side, enclosing a green, terraced bay that runs down to the sea: the scar of a landslide about 15,000 years ago in which part of the island, 150 to 180 cubic kilometres of rock, slid into the Atlantic, by the geologists’ estimates Wikipedia cites. It is seen whole from the viewpoints on its rim and walked down into on old paths.
Tally, in the marginA long morning went by admiring the great green bay from its rim before I understood I was looking at a gap, and that the missing piece lay somewhere under the sea. I went on admiring it, though more carefully.
Getting there
How to get there. From Tenerife, by sea or air. Ferries run daily from Los Cristianos, in the south of Tenerife, to the port of La Estaca on El Hierro’s east coast, operated by Fred. Olsen and Naviera Armas, a crossing of about two hours and twenty to thirty minutes, ferry-booking sites report. Binter flies from Tenerife North to El Hierro Airport, near Valverde, in about 40 minutes, flight-schedule sites show. Tenerife’s two airports are the usual way in from abroad. A hired car is the easiest way round the island once there.
When to go. Any month; the climate is mild all year and arid on the coasts, by the Spanish weather service’s figures that Wikipedia gives. The island’s own festival of the Virgin of the Kings falls on 24 September, and her four-yearly procession across the island, the Bajada, is next due in July 2029.
What to arrange ahead. The ferry or flight, a car, and a bed: hotels are mostly small family businesses, Wikipedia records. The dive sites off La Restinga lie in the Mar de las Calmas marine reserve, geoconservation researchers note; book with a local dive centre. In summer, check the island government’s fire notices, since forest tracks can be closed at high fire risk; a wildfire burned on the island in August 2025, Canarian television reported.
Safety. The State Department’s feed, read 5 October 2026, has Spain at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of terrorism and unrest, in an advisory dated 1 August 2026, and advises travellers to reconsider travel (Level 3) to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in North Africa, because of unrest. Ceuta is about 1,500 kilometres from El Hierro by the editor’s measurement. The island’s volcanic monitoring light was green in the regional civil-protection reports of May and July 2026. The other hazards are the place’s own: steep roads and cliff paths, and Atlantic swell at the rock pools.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is El Hierro?
El Hierro is the southernmost and westernmost of Spain’s Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off north-west Africa. It covers about 268 square kilometres, had 11,659 people in 2023, and its capital is Valverde.
Why is El Hierro called the Meridian Island?
In 1634 France under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu decided that its maps should count longitude from El Hierro, then taken as the westernmost land of the Old World. The Ferro meridian stayed in use on many European maps after the 1884 International Meridian Conference chose Greenwich.
How do you get to El Hierro?
By daily ferry from Los Cristianos, on Tenerife, to La Estaca, about two hours and twenty to thirty minutes with Fred. Olsen or Naviera Armas, or by a Binter flight of about 40 minutes from Tenerife North to El Hierro Airport.
When did El Hierro last erupt?
A submarine eruption began off La Restinga, at El Hierro’s southern tip, in October 2011 after months of earthquakes, and the village’s 600 people were evacuated for weeks. The island’s volcanic monitoring light was green in civil-protection reports of May and July 2026.
What is El Sabinar?
El Sabinar is an open wood of junipers on El Hierro’s high western plateau of La Dehesa, twisted by the trade winds until some grow almost parallel to the ground, as the Canary Islands’ tourism board describes. Some trees are fenced for protection.
Is El Hierro powered by renewable energy?
In large part. El Hierro’s Gorona del Viento plant, opened in 2015, combines five wind turbines with a pumped-storage reservoir in an extinct crater; it met 46.5 per cent of demand in 2017 and, by an independent analysis, all of it from 25 January to 12 February 2018.
What is El Golfo on El Hierro?
El Golfo is the great curved bay and cliff wall on El Hierro’s north side, left when part of the island slid into the sea in a landslide about 15,000 years ago, with a debris volume of 150 to 180 cubic kilometres, according to geologists cited by Wikipedia.
Is El Hierro part of the Canary Islands?
Yes. El Hierro is one of the eight inhabited Canary Islands, part of Spain’s province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the south-westernmost of the chain. It has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2000 and a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2014.