Djupavik

Djupavik is a few buildings at the foot of a waterfall on the Strandir coast, and the reason to go is the herring factory: built at the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s, it was then the largest concrete structure in Iceland, put up in a place with no road at all because the herring were there. The fish left, the plant closed in 1954, and the village emptied. The shell of the factory still stands with its machinery in place, rusting, and it is opened for tours and used for art installations and concerts in summer. The hotel occupies the building that housed the women who worked the salting.

What you actually see

• A factory built where there was no road - the largest concrete building in Iceland at the time.
• Machinery still in place - left as it stopped in 1954.
• Art and concerts inside - the shell used as a venue in summer.
• A hotel in the workers' quarters - the women's building, still standing.

When to go

June to August; the Strandir road is closed or difficult in winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The road in is long, gravel and slow, and this is genuinely remote. The factory can only be entered on a tour - the structure is not safe to wander. Services are the hotel and nothing else. Weather here closes roads without much notice.

Nearby

The Strandir coast runs north to Krossnes; Holmavik is south.