Hesteyri in Hornstrandir

Hornstrandir is the name given to the northernmost peninsula of the North West Fjords of Iceland. It is an important nature reserve, a Category 1b wilderness with no roads and no modern infrastructure. There were communities there in the past but no-one now lives there permanently. In the tiny abandoned settlements some houses have been retained by their owners for use as summer homes. 

Category 1b requires that public access should be 'at levels and of a type which will maintain the wilderness qualities of the area for present and future generations' - so very light-touch indeed, with limited numbers of visitors.

Hesteyri is a very pretty abandoned village on the edge of Hesteyrarfjörður. It was abandoned in the mid 20th century. What was once the doctor's house is now a coffee shop, and there is a camp site close by. The ferry from the northern port of Ísafjörður calls here. 

Hesteyri in high summer. But don't be fooled - it's just a few km from the arctic circle and the weather can be very cruel indeed.

It's not a place for soft tourism (unless you come for a day trip on the ferry). If you plan to stay you need to be self sufficient in food, have good equipment and technical clothing and know how to navigate and look after yourself in potentially very harsh conditions. 

The Doctor's House

Hesteyri is the location of a creepy movie, I Remember You, and the doctor's house is featured in it - well worth a watch.

Work in progress - paths with footbridges across the streams, being built by ICV volunteers.

Making an easy path for day trippers

Dandelions, a spring flower in the UK, and cranesbill, a summer flower in the UK, growing together in the short northern summer.

Orchids too

This track goes up to the plateau behind Hesteyri. And there's a poignant story to it.




The villagers started to construct it in the 1940's when the herring catch was diminishing and many of the village's young people were leaving to live in Reykjavík. They hoped to make a road to connect with the rest of Iceland which would be suitable for motor traffic. In this way, perhaps, Hesteyri would be less isolated and people would be more inclined to stay. However the project was defeated by the boggy ground on the plateau, so the overland connection was never achieved. At a meeting in November 1952 the remaining villagers made the decision to migrate south and the village was left empty.

A fox he would a-mooching go...

Summer midnight

First Trip of the Season

The harbour, Ísafjörður

Boarding the ferry

 As this is the first trip of the season we pick up Hesteyri's landing stage, which has been in safe storage during the winter...

... and tow it home.

Boats cannot approach the Hesteyri shoreline because of the shallows. The landing stage enables them to stay out in deeper water.

Walking to Work

Given the right weather, it's a very pleasant and not too difficult walk across the peninsula to Aðalvík. Here there are once again old settlements with summer houses  and a camp site. The ranger, aided by volunteers, has the job of looking after the campground. 

So from time to time it's necessary to take the two hour walk over the top, carrying spades, tools and paint tins, to do some maintenance. 

Aðalvík in sight

Work starts - painting the long drop.

Bah! Midges

The whaling station at Hesteyri



Until the 1890's Hesteyri had always subsisted on small scale farming and fishery. Then the Norwegians built a whaling station, and provided housing for the workforce. However whaling by foreign operators was controversial, and a ban was imposed in 1915. So the station was re-purposed for processing herring, and continued to do so until the 1940's when diminishing herring stocks forced it to close.

The remains of the whaling station, just outside the village

Looking down the fjord. Hesteyri is just visible to the right between the hills:

A basking seal:

Fjord views:

 

Here's a nice article about hiking in Hornstrandir:
https://travelade.com/iceland/stories/how-to-hike-hornstrandir-on-your-own-without-a-guide/

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Iceland

More on Hesteyri and the Westfjords here:

https://www.westfjords.is/blog/blog/hesteyri

Snaefellsnes 3

Malarríf

The lighthouse at Malarrif was built in 1946, replacing an  earlier one which was built in 1917. A house was built at the same time for the lighthouse keeper. However it is no longer needed for this purpose as the light is now automated and controlled centrally. 





During Spring 2018 the old lighthouse keeper's house was used for training the new ICV trail team volunteers. We hope that this arrangement will become permanent in future: it is something I have wished for for years. Malarrif is stunningly beautiful; the house is neat and pleasant and there are useful outbuildings.

Trail team barbecue feast June 2018 outside the keeper's house.

As well as being the site of a lighthouse Malarrif was farmed until 1997. It must have been a hard life. In addition to being exposed to the wild weather of the North Atlantic, the area has no reliable water source. This may seem surprising in view of the high rainfall. But the volcanic rock is very porous so hardly any of that rain is held in or on the ground: instead it just goes right through. The keeper's house has a tank to collect rainwater from the roof. Such an arrangement works well enough on this small scale but would have been hardly adequate for a farm. These days a good road links Malarrif to the main highway 1.6km away. But until the 1980's neither of these existed. When the lighthouse was built in 1946 the materials had to be brought to the site by sea. I heard a story once that, in the 1930's, the farm was cut off from the outside world for three weeks after a heavy fall of snow.  

Some of the farm buildings have recently been remodeled to make an excellent new visitor centre for the Snæfellsjökull National Park, and mains water has been brought in.

The new visitor centre at Malarrif at around midnight in late June, with cloud pouring down the side of Snæfellsjökull behind.

This view looks from the lighthouse towards the keeper's house and outbuildings. In between can be seen the bizarrely shaped volcanic plug, Lóndrangar, and the distinctive shape of the mountain, Stapafell, at Arnastapi.

Another view of Lóndrangar and Snæfellsjökull.

Here a trail team work on the access path to Lóndrangar.

An old fish processing house has been renovated during the last few years and is now an education facility. Here volunteers are re-cladding the building.  

The completed education facility, surrounded by old whalebones. The bar which can be seen to the left, between the shingle and the rocks, was created when the lighthouse was built to make a safe haven for unloading building materials from boats.

See also my other posts, Snæfellsnes 1 and Snæfellsness 2.

ICV is the volunteer arm of the Icelandic Environment Agency. For more information see:

http://www.ust.is/the-environment-agency-of-iceland/volunteers/