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Midsummer and the North Coast of Iceland

This sculpture, with its sense of a Scandinavian helmet, is entitled 'Farið' and stands on the waterfront in Akureyri. It is by the Icelandic artist Pétur Bjarnason. Literally meaning 'Gone' it has also been called the 'Fishtail' and 'Flight'. Two locations on the north coast of Iceland provide the pictures for this page. The major town of Akureyri has a population of some 18,000 and is the largest centre of population outside the south-west of the island. The other community featured is Raufarhöfn the most northerly village in Iceland about 6 miles south of the northern tip of the country; the place I had chosen to spend midsummer. The Bautinn Restaurant in Akureyri stands conspicuously at the centre of the town The outskirts of the town with the mountains behind Sculptures are a feature of public spaces, beyond this one is the main church of Akureyri The waterfront of Akureyri The main church overlooks the waterfront area of Akureyri A fjord and mountain view across the harbour area of the town of Húsavík - population 2,100 - which lies halfway between Akureyri and Raufarhöfn A more traditional church design is found here in Húsavík And this is the church at Raufarhöfn - the most northerly community in Iceland The harbour and church at Raufarhöfn less than 20 miles from the Arctic Circle If this image strikes you as desolate it has been successful, for this is the lighthouse at the tip of Iceland's northernmost peninsular. I had attempted to walk to it on Midsummer's day, but as I set out, a blizzard started which blew for two days; I never made it. This photo, from the road a kilometre away, was taken after the storm abated These three blurred images were taken from the Raufarhöfn hotel at... ...lighter moments in the two days of blizzard at Midsummer The fresh snow you can see above soon melted Two more shots of the north coast near Raufarhöfn to reinforce, maybe unnecessarily, the message that it is bleak up there. A black ash and stone landscape, with patches of moss, and a constant north wind On enquiring about public transport from Reykjavik to Raufarhöfn, I was met with puzzlement, it was not a place that the tourist office staff thought visitors would want to go The shots on the rest of this page try to show that all is not so bleak on the north coast. Snow covered mountains and ... ...spectacular rock-forms make the lanscape as a whole attractive, and the areas of human habitation are well provided with statues, sculptures and abstract art To the left is one of Einar Jónsson's series of sculptures entitled 'Outlaws' Fjords, rocks and mountains of the north coast A barrage offers protected anchorage to small craft A quintessential composition of Icelandic countryside: ridged, snow covered mountains, standing above isolated farm houses, and surrounded by green fields The next page returns to the theme of islands and hops down to the Outer Hebrides which lie to the north-west of Scotland, and specifically to the island of Barra seen in this picture.

Connections...

The last page was about Ísafjörður - Iceland's fjord of ice From the cold north coast of Iceland to the warm south coast of Tenerife, but still black ash A page on a rather different sort of beach at Tĩnh Gia in Vietnam Or go to the page which was added one year ago.

Saturday 23rd June 2018