Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Langanes peninsula
A 35km-long fog-bound prong dividing the Arctic Ocean from a warmer North
Atlantic, the
Langanes peninsula
juts northeast from Þórshöfn. Most of the farms here
have been abandoned, but the gravel
Route 869
runs part of the way up, from where
you'll have to hike the remaining 20km to the Fontur lighthouse at Langanes' tip. A
major target along the way is
Skoruvíkurbjarg
on the peninsula's northernmost edge, a
grassy clifftop with views down on a busy
gannet colony
occupying an offshore
rock-stack 50m below - bring a camera. Across from here on the south coast, scattered
ruins at
Skálar
are all that remains of a once busy hamlet that, until the 1930s, was a
seasonal trading post for Faroese fishermen.
6
Bakkajörður
Some 40km southeast from Þórshöfn along Route 85,
BAKKAFJÖRÐUR
is an isolated
cliff-top community of rich, reclusive fishermen, some 5km of the main road. As
the region's smallest settlement, the village endures much “butt of the world”-type
humour, and in truth there's not much here beyond the obligatory salting plant, a
self-service
fuel pump
and a
store
, located at the end of the one and only main road
overlooking the sea. There's nowhere to eat or stay, though a good day's walk can be
had over the humpy
Digranes headland
and around a rocky coastline to the Svartnes
lighthouse.
Vopnajörður and around
Set at the base of a broad inlet on Route 85,
VOPNAFJÖRÐUR
is a relatively sizeable
town of two parallel streets arrayed along the narrow, rocky finger of the Kolbeinstangi
peninsula, and is famed for its warm weather and salmon fishing. The surrounding area
featured in several interconnected Settlement-era tales of clan feuding known as the
Vopnajörð sagas
- appropriately enough, Vopnafjörður means “Weapons Fjord”.
Today, Vopnafjörður is really just somewhere to pause where routes to Egilsstaðir,
Mývatn and the northeast meet, though there's an interesting folk museum at nearby
Bustarfell
, and the region's only thermal pool at
Selárdalur
.
Kaupvangur Culture Centre
Hafnarbyggð • June to mid-Aug daily 10am-6pm • 700kr •
W
mulastofa.is
After the lands southwest of Vopnafjörður were sterilized by the 1875 eruption of Viti
in Askja (see p.314), the town became an
emigration point
to the US and Canada for
around two thousand impoverished farmers and their families. Canada, which at the
time had a “populate or perish” policy, offered subsidized passages for anyone wanting
to migrate, and sent ships to take them.
Kaupvangur Culture Centre
, in a restored,
yellow-painted corrugated-iron warehouse next to the fish factory, has extensive records
and a small photo exhibition on this slice of Vopnafjörður's history, along with a few
cases of stuffed birds.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
VOPNAFJÖRÐUR
By car
There is no public transport to Vopnafjörður. To the
north, Route 85 runs 65km to Þórshöfn; east is the direct
80km Route 917 to Egilsstaðir (see p.272), though this
mountainous gravel road can be closed by snow even in
summer; while Route 85 continues southwest to join the
Ringroad 60km west of Egilsstaðir and 75km east of
Mývatn.
Tourist Information
There's a tourist o
ce inside the
Culture Centre (summer daily 10am-6pm;
T
473 1331).
Services
The bank and post o
ce are near the church
on Lónabraut; Kauptún
supermarket (Mon-Fri
9am-6pm, Sat noon-4pm) is below on the harbour road,
Hafnarbyggð.
