Gunnbjörn's skerries were a group of small skerries

Skerry

A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low sea stack....

 lying close between Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 and Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, discovered by Gunnbjörn Ulfsson

Gunnbjörn Ulfsson

Gunnbjørn Ulfsson , name also given as Gunnbjørn Ulf-Krakuson, was the first European to sight North America....

 in the 9th century. They became a popular stopover for ships traveling to Greenland and a brief attempt to set up a colony was made about 970. Snaebjörn Galti

Snaebjörn Galti

Snøbjørn Galte Holmsteinsson was the first Norseman to intentionally navigate to Greenland, doing so in 978 CE....

 visited around 978. A later attempt succeeded and by 1391 there were 18 farms on the islands. Apparently in 1456, according to Ruysch

Johannes Ruysch

Johannes Ruysch , a.k.a. Johann Ruijsch or Giovanni Ruisch was an explorer, cartographer, astronomer, manuscript illustrator and painter from the Low Countries who produced a famous map of the world: the second oldest known printed representation of the New World...

, the islands "completely burned up", i.e. were blown up. On later maps, as late as 1700, the shoals formed by the remains of the explosion was noted with the name "Gombar Scheer".