Isafjordur

Four timber buildings raised in 1734 line up along the quay. They rank among the oldest wooden structures in the country and now hold a restaurant and a museum.

It narrows at the top and spreads wide at the bottom, dropping 100 metres in steps. Six smaller falls run below it in sequence.

Everyone left this peninsula in the 1950s and it has neither roads nor power. Access is by boat alone, and arctic foxes come close because they have no fear of people.

Rowing boats and early motor vessels stand here in the flesh. Waterproof clothing the fishermen made from fish skin hangs among them.

A steel deck juts out from a cliff edge at 638 metres. With clear air the sea toward the arctic circle shows all the way out.

Kayaks go out on the calm inner fjord and seals turn up beside them. The water is clear, so the weed on the bottom shows as the paddle moves.

A vast earth bank built into the slope shields the town from avalanches. Walkers use a path along the top, which gives the bank a second purpose.

A tunnel leads to this small village where each catch is sold with a note of where it was taken. Geothermal heat warms the whole place and a thermal pool sits in it.

One family lives on this small island and eider down is gathered here each summer. The smallest post office in the country stands on it.

Inside a tunnel bored through the mountain the road splits three ways. One branch is single lane, so oncoming traffic is waited out in the passing bays.

On the Bolungarvik shore, the turf hut, salting shed and fish-drying racks of old fishermen have been rebuilt. A six-oared wooden boat sits out front. A guide wearing sheepskin work clothes shows you around inside the hut.

In Onundarfjordur's fishing village, reached by tunnel, a bookshop opened in 1914 keeps its original display cases. Upstairs, the shopkeepers' family home is set out as an exhibition. Behind the village, barriers built after the 1995 avalanche climb the slope.

An exhibition on the Arctic fox, Iceland's only native land mammal, in an old farmhouse in the village of Sudavik. Mounted specimens set summer and winter coats side by side. At times an orphaned fox is being looked after in the enclosure in the yard.

A small farmhouse of stone and turf, built in 1895, stands on the shore of Skotufjordur. In summer it becomes a cafe serving waffles and coffee inside. On many days seals haul out on the rocks just offshore.

A pastor created this small garden in Dyrafjordur in 1909, and few botanical gardens in Iceland are older. At the entrance stands an arch made of two whale jawbones. Inside a stone wall that breaks the wind, flower and vegetable beds are kept apart.

Just west of town, this valley gathers woodland, a campsite and a golf course. Follow the forest path and the Buna waterfall slides down over the rocks. It is less windy than town, so residents come here for weekend walks.