Vogur Telegraph Cable Station

Remains of the station where Iceland's first international telegraph cable came ashore in 1906

The Vogur cable station, a short walk east of the town centre, marks where Iceland's first international telegraph cable came ashore in 1906. The cable, laid by the Great Northern Telegraph Company, connected Iceland to the global communications network for the first time — running from Scotland via the Faroe Islands, it made Seyðisfjörður the point of contact between Iceland and the rest of the world's telegraph system.

The original station buildings are still visible and the site has been marked with a rusted telephone booth that functions as a piece of outdoor memorial art — an ironic salute to the world's first wired communications, now encountered in an age of wireless everything. The walk from the harbour takes about ten minutes along the fjord shore, and the fjord views on the way are excellent.

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Iceland's first connection to the wider world's communications network came ashore here in 1906, when the Great Northern Telegraph Company laid a cable from Scotland via the Faroe Islands to Seyðisfjörður. For decades this was how Iceland sent and received international messages. A rusted telephone booth near the old cable station has been installed as a memorial — visitors are invited to pick up the receiver and ask, in the tradition of the old operators, "How's it going?"