Skansinn and the Harbour on Heimaey
Skansinn and the Harbour on Heimaey
The fishing fleet jostles for space with the ferry and a small fleet of pleasure boats in Heimaey’s snug harbour. Processing plants line the quayside, where you can jump aboard a speedboat for a thrilling circumnavigation of the island.
Skansinn, east of the harbour, was a simple fort built of hewn lava blocks in the late 16th century by order of the Danish King, to defend the island of Heimaey from the British! Ironically, when the islands were under attack from Algerian pirates, it served no purpose at all as the raiders had simply come ashore elsewhere.
Below the fort, you’ll find a replica of a Norwegian stave church donated by Norway in 2000 to celebrate one thousand years of Christianity in Iceland. Also on the site is the restored maternity hospital, now a small museum.
As you look out over the harbour entrance, you can ponder just how close the menacing wall of lava came to blocking the harbour altogether, during the 1973 eruption. The town’s original water storage tank was not spared – what remains, pokes out from the lava. There are public toilets here.
If you’re exploring on foot, you can continue from Skansinn over the lava, where paths have been mapped out to follow the original street grid – poignant signs mark their names.