Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2016, Blaðsíða 22

As you drive around Iceland, the
chances are good that you’ll see a light-
house or two. Unsurprising, consider-
ing there are 104 lighthouses all along
the nearly 5,000 kilometres of coast-
line. For most of us, these structures
seem almost like vestiges of a bygone
era, making fine subjects for photog-
raphy or maybe a quick look-around.
For others, like mason Ingvar Hreins-
son, they are a passion.
Ingvar recently achieved the dis-
tinction of having “completed” repairs
to every lighthouse in the country, a
feat that took him 21 years. “Complet-
ed” is a relative term, because as be-
came very clear in talking with Ingvar,
the work is never really done.
Ingvar is soft-spoken, and not one
to brag about the work he does. He
even downplayed the impetus for tak-
ing this job in the first place.
“There was a financial crisis going
on, and I was looking for work,” he told
us. “I saw this job being advertised,
and applied for it. I was lucky to be
chosen from out of many applicants. It
was a job that suited me, because I’m
used to working without a vacation—
evenings, weekends, even Christmas
and Easter.”
The nerve centre
Ingvar’s office, located on the north
shore of Kópavogur, is enormous.
There are several separate workshops
within the building, used for the re-
pair and upkeep of lighthouse-related
equipment past and present: lamps of
gas and electricity, giant glass lenses,
radio gear and the like. Even the colos-
sal steel buoys that the British military
brought to Iceland in the 1940s can be
found here, sitting in dry dock in vari-
ous states of disrepair, made obsolete
long ago by the plastic buoys Iceland
now uses to measure the size of waves.
The most stunning structure with-
in the building, however, is a scale
model of Landeyjahöfn. Taking up an
area about half the size of an airplane
hangar, this expanse of rocks and wa-
ter can in fact recreate any harbour
in the country and its wave activity.
Overhead, a giant map of Iceland re-
plete with flashing lights along the
coastline indicates not just where each
lighthouse is located, but also its sig-
nature blink—captains at sea who are
completely lost can actually use these
signature blinks to identify where
they are.
We also found what must be the
Holy Grail of lighthouse work on these
premises: a cabinet holding the keys to
every single lighthouse in Iceland. Not
that all of them had keys; some were
listed simply as “open,” and are never
locked at all.
“Some of these lighthouses are used
as emergency shelters, such as when
there’s a shipwreck or an accident at
sea,” Ingvar told us.
The work never ends
Ingvar doesn’t do the work alone, how-
ever. He leads a team of some 80 paid
volunteers, mostly university students,
who take part in duties that include “a
lot of cleaning, replacing broken win-
dows, crafting handrails and doors, but
mostly a great deal of painting.”
With such a team behind him, why
then does it take a generation to re-
pair just over 100 lighthouses?
“They’re not standing inside the har-
bour,” Ingvar explained. “They’re placed
way out on the edge of the sea, where
they’re subjected to the worst kinds of
conditions: wind, water, salt and sand
all take their toll. So it’s constant work
repairing them, again and again.”
In fact, Ingvar did not exactly make
his repairs in an orderly, sequential
fashion. He was required to back-
track, visiting some lighthouses sev-
eral times along the way.
Interestingly, these lighthouses
use sustainable energy. They are pow-
ered by solar cells, and wind power,
with a battery capable of holding
enough electricity to keep the light-
house going. “You don’t really need
direct sunlight for solar panels,” he
told us. “Just some kind of light. Even
in the winter, the cells are converting
the sunlight into power for the light-
house. It’s totally possible to use solar
cells in Iceland.”
As one might expect, this is not a job
where one encounters any big surpris-
es, but the lighthouses were nonethe-
less a source of wonder for Ingvar.
“I guess what surprised me most is
how many beautiful structures there
are, especially when one considers
how difficult the conditions were for
building them at the time,” he said,
and while he cares for them all, there
is one lighthouse that he holds dear-
est: Dýrholaey.
“I’ve just worked so much on it, and
find it so beautiful, that it’s a favou-
rite of mine,” Ingvar told us, which
anyone who visits his office can
guess. Large, detailed blueprints of
the lighthouse adorn the wall, and he
has spent a great deal of time build-
ing an apartment inside the light-
house itself.
“A lighthouse is more
than just a lighthouse”
In fact, you actually can stay the night
in some of these lighthouses, but it’ll
cost you. Accommodation at some
places can go up to 250,000 ISK per
night. That may, however, change in
the near future.
“It’s a policy now to try and get
some money out of these lighthouses,”
Ingvar told us. “We’ve started renting
them out, one by one. And people are
always asking about lighthouses for
rent. We’re very open to the idea, if
someone wants to rent a lighthouse.
There have been weddings at light-
houses. Some men have come to use
asking for keys to a lighthouse so they
could propose marriage to their girl-
friends in a lighthouse.”
For now, lighthouses are funded
by a “lighthouse fee,” money which is
deducted from the harbour fees that
docking ships have to pay. This makes
cruise ships that visit Iceland very lu-
crative for lighthouses.
In the meantime, there are a number
of lighthouses that serve more purposes
than just guiding ships into a harbour
or letting them know where it is danger-
ous to sail. The Akranesviti lighthouse
and the Knarrarós lighthouse in South
Iceland, for example, regularly feature
exhibitions, concerts (the acoustics are
reportedly astounding) and have tours
most or all of the year.
On the practical front, lighthouses
are also maritime nerve centres of a
sort. In addition to the beacon they
provide, these structures also house
radar, GSM devices, relays for radio
stations and more.
Ingvar, true to his nature as a man
of few words, has only one simple mes-
sage to convey: “A lighthouse is more
than just a lighthouse.” He gets end-
less enjoyment out of seeing city slick-
ers like myself finding anything in-
teresting about lighthouses at all, and
warmly welcomed us back any time.
With a mason as passionate about the
work as Ingvar is, Iceland’s lighthous-
es will likely continue to be a source of
fascination and crucial maritime as-
sistance for years to come.
“Shine A Light”
The Icelander Who Repaired Every
Single Lighthouse In The Country
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2016
22
Words by
PAUL
FONTAINE
Photos by
ART BICNICK
FEATURE