Page 122 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL WINTER 2024 SCOTLAND

ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Opposite: Akureyri, Iceland’s second biggest city evening but the light pollution is too strong
(top); the old turf house Laufás (left); Deplar Farm, a to see any hints of the aurora borealis.
luxury lodge on the Troll Peninsula (right)
Above: beginning of the High Street
Top: Music lovers head to Græni hatturinn on Friday
and Saturday.
122 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE WINTER 2025
Another day finishes with dinner, this
time at Strikið restaurant over a plate of
freshly caught salmon. The quality of the
fish and seafood here is outstanding. Ice‐
landers eat fish twice a week on average,
and over half of the population consumes
fish oil, or "lysi," at least four times a week.
Other staple foods are lamb or Icelandic
skyr (a type of yoghurt). “Icelanders love
butter, cream and sugar”, laughs Corina
and sure enough my dessert arrives with a
giant dollop of whipped cream.
Akureyri might be small but that
doesn’t mean there is no fun. On Fridays
and Saturdays, music lovers head to Græni
hatturinn where live concerts are staged.
The venue is packed to the rafters, and I
find myself singing along to the tunes of a
Fleetwood Mac revival band. For a while
I’m forgetting the mission of my trip but on
leaving the club my phone gives another
“ping”. This time the alert is real. The
northern lights have been spotted in a val‐
ley only 30 minutes’ drive from Akureyri,
and there is a picture to prove it. Unfortu‐
nately, at 10pm and without a car I’m in no
position to get there. So close, yet so far …
SUCCESS AT LAST
I keep looking out the window that
Maybe I have more luck at Deplar Farm, a
luxury lodge in a secluded valley on the
Troll Peninsula where I’ll stay the next two
nights.
“Seeing the northern lights is a bit like
fishing”, says half-Scot Tom Hoyland when
he picks me up to take me to my accom‐