Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [155]
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PUTTING THE ‘COLD’ BACK IN ‘COLD WAR’
If you thought that the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union only involved space races and crafty KGB agents, then you are very, very wrong. The Cold War was the ultimate spy game spanning the circumference of the globe.
We sat down with James Barlow, a member of the US Navy who was stationed at Keflavík in southwest Iceland from 2003 until the base’s closing in September 2006. Armed with a university degree in history, James developed a fascination with the American military presence in Iceland during the Cold War. Here’s what he discovered:
Strategically located at the four corners of Iceland are the remains of four NATO radar sites that once protected Iceland’s airspace from the Soviet Union. The most accessible is ‘Rockville’, or H-1, located near the town of Sandgerði on the Reykjanes Peninsula and the old NATO base at the airport. The Rockville buildings were used as a backdrop to the 2005 film A Little Trip to Heaven, directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur and starring Forest Whitaker and Julia Stiles. Rockville was torn down in 2006 in preparation for the closing of the Keflavík NATO base.
The next site, H-2, or ‘Langanes’, is located on the complete opposite side of the island outside the town of Þórshöfn in the northeast. To reach the site, follow Rte 869 out of town towards Skálar and Fontur. Just past the last inhabited farm at Hlið, head up the large mountain to the right (east). Almost nothing remains of the site today.
Site H-3 in southeast Iceland is also quite accessible, less than 5km along a dirt road leading off of the Ring Road. The Icelandic name for the site is ‘Stokksnes’, and it is the most complete of the four radar sites. The radar dome still stands today, and is used by the Icelandic government for aviation. You cannot approach the radar dome, as it is fenced off, but this location makes a great starting point for a hike around Vestrahorn.
The final and most remote of the radar sites is H-4, or ‘Straumnes’, in the Westfjords. H-4 is only accessible to hikers in Hornstrandir and makes a wonderful day hike from the base camp in Rekavík bak Látrar or Aðalvík. The easiest way to hike up to the old site is to start at the airstrip near Aðalvík (once used for ferrying supplies and personnel to the H-4 site) and follow the abandoned dirt road up to the windswept ruins. The road was cleared of rockfall debris in 2006 so that a vehicle could follow the veterans of H-4 as they hiked back to the place they had called home some 45 years earlier.
Despite the relative accessibility today, the journey to H-4 in the late 1950s was nothing short of harrowing. When a soldier arrived at the main base in Keflavík, he would immediately be flown on an Icelandic float-plane up to Ísafjörður (for a water landing – this was before the airport was built), then board a whaling vessel to distant Aðalvík where a flat-bottom landing craft would ferry him to shore. The lorries that shuttled the servicemen up the mount would often have mechanical problems due to the frigid temperatures, so the last part of the trip usually involved a gruelling hike through the unforgiving landscape. To learn more about the airmen who worked at the radar sites in the 1950s and 1960s, www.usradarsitesiceland.org.
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Sjóferðir ( 456 3879; www.sjoferdir.is) sails from Ísafjörður to Hesteyri (Ikr5200) five times a week, with one of these services continuing to Veiðileysufjörður. There is one weekly trip to Grunnavík (Ikr4800), which continues on to Hrafnfjörður. Two weekly trips head to Hornvík (Ikr9600) and Aðalvík Sæból (Ikr5700).
Bjarnarnes ( 892 3652, 853 0589; www.bjarnarnes.is) sails from Bolungarvík to Aðalvík and Hesteyri (Ikr4500) on a limited schedule; Click here for info on boats from the Strandir coast.
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