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The story of life on Iceland has always been one of boom and bust, dearth and glut. Back in 1917 a herring-salting factory opened in Djùpavík in the remote Westfjords. By 1919 it was bankrupt. In 1934 it was boom time again and a bigger herring factory was built – the largest concrete building in the country at the time. Alongside the factory, three giant circular tanks were constructed, capable of holding up to 5,600 tons of herring oil. The oil was prevented from solidifying in the winter by metal pipes coiled around their floors funnelling geothermally-heated steam.
But by the mid 40s the herring were (you guessed it) gone and the factory closed in 1954 with the settlement left abandoned until the 80s and the conversion of one of the buildings into a hotel for hardy hikers. These days it the post-industrial landscape rather than the sea that lures visitors, with the old factory now “ruin porn” for tourists, and also a sometime venue for the occasional music performance: thanks to the great acoustics in the tanks, bands such as Sigur Rós have played impromptu gigs in their cavernous bellies. I (sl)
In the Round
The story of life on Iceland has always been one of boom and bust, dearth and glut. Back in 1917 a herring-salting factory opened in Djùpavík in the remote Westfjords. By 1919 it was bankrupt. In 1934 it was boom time again and a bigger herring factory was built – the largest concrete building in the country at the time. Alongside the factory, three giant circular tanks were constructed, capable of holding up to 5,600 tons of herring oil. The oil was prevented from solidifying in the winter by metal pipes coiled around their floors funnelling geothermally-heated steam...
Photo: Guðmundur Ingólfsson
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