Alkefjellet: Svalbard’s Towering Bird Kingdom
There are some moments in travel that imprint themselves forever, the kind of memories that feel almost impossible to describe because they’re equal parts beauty, stillness, and awe. My day at Alkefjellet with Quark Expeditions was exactly that.
Svalbard already feels like the edge of the world. A place where glaciers carve their way into the sea and mountains rise like frozen cathedrals. But nothing prepared me for Alkefjellet, a sheer wall of basalt that towers above the Arctic Ocean and pulses with life.
Arriving by Zodiac
We set out by zodiac on a sunny, crystalline Arctic morning. The water was pretty calm and ahead of us, the cliffs of Alkefjellet appeared like a dark, jagged fortress rising straight from the sea.
As we approached, the sound reached us before the sight: a constant fluttering, chirping, and calling that echoed off the stone. The “living walls” nickname suddenly made perfect sense.
Tens of Thousands of Birds
Alkefjellet is one of the Arctic’s largest bird cliffs, home to tens of thousands of breeding seabirds. The stars of the show are the Brünnich’s guillemots, slender black and white birds that nest shoulder to shoulder on impossibly narrow ledges. Watching them swoop off the cliffs in perfect arcs felt like witnessing a David Attenborough documentary in real time.
Mixed in were kittiwakes, their delicate calls weaving through the deeper notes of the guillemots, and the occasional glaucous gull circling overhead. The sheer scale of it was overwhelming, thousands of wings beating against a backdrop of vertical basalt pillars.
It felt like drifting beneath a living, breathing waterfall of birds.
The Landscape: Raw, Vertical, Untouched
The cliffs themselves are a masterpiece: towering columns of black basalt rising straight from turquoise water, carved over millions of years by ancient volcanic activity. The rock faces are streaked with mineral colours, softened by patches of moss, and sculpted by wind, ice, and guano (years of accumulation of bird poop, a true Arctic perfume).
There’s no town nearby. No harbour. No sign of human life. Alkefjellet sits in the heart of the Hinlopen Strait, one of Svalbard’s most remote channels, surrounded by glaciers and mountains that look untouched since the beginning of time.
The remoteness adds to the experience, you don’t just see Alkefjellet, you feel the isolation, the scale, the silence, and then the explosion of life that breaks that silence entirely.
A Rare Arctic Moment
Sitting in a zodiac under those cliffs, with birds spiralling above and the cold Arctic air brushing against my face, felt surreal. It’s one thing to visit a wildlife hotspot; it’s something else entirely to be immersed in it, surrounded by thousands of creatures going about their lives as if you’re not even there.
The Arctic has a way of shrinking you in the best possible way, reminding you that the world is vast, wild, and filled with moments many people will never experience.
A Moment to Remember
My day at Alkefjellet was one of the highlights of my Quark Expeditions journey, a reminder of why I love exploring the world’s remote regions. Raw nature, wildlife on a massive scale, and the privilege of witnessing a place that feels both fragile and eternal.
If you ever find yourself in Svalbard, make sure Alkefjellet is on your list. Trust me: some walls are meant to be seen up close.