Langanes is a peninsula in the very northeast corner of Iceland. It’s main village Þórshöfn is 621 km (386 miles) from Reykjavík, the capital. There is one main road on the peninsula, called Langanesvegur (869). It starts just before Þórshöfn and ends at the ruins of Skálar, which is near the end of the peninsula. However, the narrow tip of Langanes peninsula is named Fontur and the trail leading to it is not a part of 869. The entire length of the peninsula is around 55 km (34 miles).
So, let’s go over all the exciting places to visit on this peninsula. It’s main and only village Þórshöfn is at the start of the peninsula, a nice fishing village with population around 360 people. My first stop after Þórshöfn was the plane wreck. Most people know that there is a DC3 plane wreck on a black sand beach in South Iceland, but actually there is another one here just outside Þórshöfn. It crashed July 25, 1969 and has been on that same spot for over 50 years! It was US Air Force’s plane transporting cargo from Reykjavík, but it was hit by strong crosswinds during the landing, so it overshot the runway and damaged the landing gear a lot. Back then there was Þórshöfn's landing strip on that spot, but now it’s a private property and the plane is in the middle of a farmland, providing shelter from rain for horses or sheep. It’s worth pointing out that Google Maps is leading you to the farm, but the official trail to access the plane comes a bit later and there is also a sign for that. But you are not allowed to drive there, you’d need to climb over a small ladder over the fence. Since I wanted to save time, I used the pictures of the plane wreck from 2020 when I visited it last time.
Next place on the list is the former Langanes H-2 air station, or rather what’s left of it. It was US Air Force’s radar station and was built in 1951, but was badly damaged by a storm in 1961 and after that the radar station was moved to a new location. This is another place where Google Maps actually wants to lead you off the way. I got a bit confused myself there and took the wrong way, but was also a bit curious to find out what’s at the end of it, but it just led to a farm. The right trail to the air station goes up the hill.
Then it’s a little bit of driving and next stop is Stórikarl observation deck. You have an amazing view of sea cliffs and lots and lots of birds. Iceland’s second largest gannet colony lives here. From there it’s only 11 km (7 miles) of driving and you will reach to the ruins of Skálar. It used to be fishing village in 1920s, but due to its inability to facilitate motorised fishing boats as well as the great depression of 1930s caused the village to slowly die out. Another scary incident with Skálar was when during the II World War two naval mines drifted off to Skálar and exploded, destroying two buildings. All this was enough to make people to move away and the very last family left Skálar in 1955.
Road 869 actually ends at Skálar, but there is a narrow tip left of Langanes Peninsula, called Fontur. If you are there and the weather allows, I recommend taking the time to drive to the very end of the peninsula. There is a nice lighthouse at the end and the peninsula is very narrow there. If you happen to have a drone, you can examine the beautiful cliffs coming out from the sea, where the road and lighthouse are located on. I was very happy that the weather was good and I managed to capture Fontur area with the drone.
From there on I just drove all the way back to Þórshöfn. The distance from Þórshöfn to Fontur (with all the stops) was 82 km (51 miles) and it took me almost three hours. All in all I spent almost 5 hours driving through 869 both ways. This road is not an F-road and even though there are some potholes, it is doable with a passenger car. As you can see in Skálar, somebody had gone there with a VW Fox! My vehicle as always was my faithful Nissan Pathfinder R51 and on this trip I was alone, accompanied only by my husky.
Chapters:
00:00 Map of the route
00:23 Þórshöfn
03:02 Road 869 (until the plane wreck)
04:13 Þórshöfn's plance wreck
05:57 Road 869 (until the wrong turn)
07:28 Wrong turn...
12:23 Trail to H-2 station
15:00 Ruins of Langanes H-2 Air Station
16:10 Trail downhill from H-2 back to 869
19:30 Road 869 (until Stórikarl)
27:37 Stórikarl Observation Deck
28:15 Road 869 (until Skálar)
33:34 Ruins of Skálar
34:54 Road 869 (until junction with Fontur 's trail)
36:44 Trail to Fontur
41:37 Fontur & Lighthouse
41:53 Drone Footage 1
42:54 Fontur's trail back towards 869
45:40 Drone Footage 2
47:13 Fontur's trail back towards 869
48:52 Road 869 back towards Þórshöfn
59:01 Þórshöfn
#iceland #langanes #nissanpathfinder #ervindrivesaround #dji