Getting out and about in Uummannaq was our first extended landing during our July 2024 expedition cruise. Our previous landings were short touch downs after paddling excursions in Uummannaq and Perlerfiup Kangerlua fjords.

Anticipation

As usual, Mr GeoK was up early. He composed some great photographs of Uummannaq’s colorful buildings, heart-shaped mountain and an arriving supply ship.

Uummannaq’s port occupies a small inlet at the southeastern end of the island. The inlet is not deep enough to service large cruise ships. But it is deep enough for supply and fishing ships,as well as motorboats and lesser fishing boats. Mr GeoK captured the Royal Arctic Line’s polar cargo ship Maleraq Arctica arriving. Constructed in the Zamakona shipyard in Bilbao, Spain, the ship launched in 2021. This article about life on board is an interesting read.

We watched the expedition crew organize zodiacs and ferry a couple of team members to shore to make sure everything was open for our arrival.

The first zodiac full of passengers soon followed.

Landing

Shortly after that, our group departed Ultramarine via zodiac.

At the jetty, our expedition leader Jake reinforced a few details from the previous evening’s briefing: the museum, church, old doctor’s house, whale blubber house and turf houses were all open for us to visit. Those wanting a bit of exercise could head to the astroturf football (soccer) field and/or to the top of a nearby hill for a view over the entire townsite. Zodiacs would return to the ship at noon, for lunch back aboard Ultramarine.

Viewpoint

We opted to begin our exploration of Ummannaq at the viewpoint. But first, we doffed our expedition parkas, which were way too warm for the sunny weather. Many passengers opted to leave their expedition parkas at the jetty.

After walking a street parallel to the harbor for about 500 meters, we veered right. Then we continued up a hill and climbed some sets of wooden steps to the viewpoint. Total distance = 1 km, with an elevation gain of about 85 meters.

Despite the minimal elevation gain, we enjoyed a great view over the town to Uummannaq Fjord. Ultramarine was at anchor. Also visible were the outlet glaciers off the Greenland Ice Sheet that we’d flown over two days earlier.

During this first stop we noted: 1) the bare rock underlying the entire town; 2) which means that the utilities run above ground; 3) the extensive network of wooden boardwalks and staircases instead of the sidewalks we’re accustomed to connecting homes and businesses; and 4) sheltered pockets in the rock accumulate enough “dirt” that hardy wildflowers flourish in the short summer growing season.

Town Center

Next, we headed to the town center, where we made several stops, beginning at another overlook near the school. Here we noticed a slab of locally quarried granite, with a plaque commemorating the 225th anniversary of Uummannaq’s founding in 1763! That’s more than a century before the settlers’ founding of Canmore and Calgary in the Bow Valley back home.

We also spotted a snow bunting and another songbird (possibly a female snow bunting). And we continued to spot above ground utilities.

Old Doctor’s House

Our next stop was the old Doctor’s House, which housed an exhibition of 26 paintings by Rockwell Kent. Kent (1882-1971) was one of the United States’ significant modern realist and symbolism painters, an illustrator and writer. Kent visited Greenland 3 times between 1929 and 1935. He appreciated how Greenlandic life in a small settlement involved everybody, and how vital resources where shared among them.

Politically, he supported social movements, labor unions and became enamored with socialism and communism. During the McCarthy era, he was accused of being a communist. One result was that he donated 80 oil paintings to the Soviet Union, including many Greenlandic paintings. Today, most of his paintings in Russia are stored and not available for public viewing.

Even so, the Uummannaq Polar Institute gathered 26 paintings for “When the Colour Ceases to be Just a Colour.” Here are Mr GeoK’s photos of a few of them:

View the full catalogue here. Note – this pdf from the Uummannaq Polar Institute took quite a while to load on my computer. The Rockwell Kent Forum has a page dedicated to Kent’s time in Greenland.

Uummannaq Museum

Housed in an old hospital dating back to 1880, the municipally-owned Uummannaq Museum opened in 1988. There’s an exhibition on German polar explorer/geologist Alfred Wegener, a kayak exhibit, information about the Qilakitsoq mummies (we visited the discovery site later that day), a section on the Maarmorilik mine (which we saw the previous day) and more.

Whale Blubber House

The whale blubber house is half underground, to help control the interior temperature. No longer used to store whale blubber, it houses an odd collection of things. They are somewhat organized, but without accompanying explanation. It reminded me of a garage sale, with nothing actually for sale! And I spotted some Lego in the mix. 🙂

Turf Houses

Some of Uummannaq’s turf houses were occupied into the 1980s. We visited two such homes, preserved in the town center. The construction technique is examinable from the outside. Stepping inside is like going back in time and gives a good idea of how tight the quarters would have been for any Greenlandic Inuit family through the long winter season.

Santa’s Letter Box

Just up the hill from the turf houses is a giant red letter box for Santa Claus. Letters delivered to this giant letter box are answered from Santa’s summer office, housed in the old doctor’s house. 🙂

Church

Greenland’s largest stone church is constructed of granite cut from Uummannaq’s hillside quarry. The outer stones are square and placed in lines, a symbol of the order and power of God. Inside, the rocks have less traditional shapes, symbolizing the human race.

I’ve been unable to find a complete history of the congregation. I’m guessing that on completion of the church in 1935, the congregation associated with the Church of Denmark via the Church of Greenland (Protestant in classification and Lutheran in orientation). However, some time after 1989, Uummannaq became an outpost of the New Apostolic Church (the largest institution in the Restorationist strand of Christian theology that combines aspects of Protestant doctrine and Catholic ecclesiastical tradition). In recent years, as few as 25 to 30 parishioners attend Sunday service.

The church played a critical role in sheltering residents of Ilulissat after a 2017 tsunami hit that town. The risk of new tsunamis, triggered by landslides, was deemed too high to allow residents to stay in Ilulissat. They were permanently evacuated to Uummannaq, where the church helped them deal with their trauma and uprooting.

A local resident greeted us at the church door. I wish I’d known to ask him about the tsunami. And also to ask him to point out the painting, Jesus With His Disciples At The Sea Of Galilee, recently identified as the work of Peter Gemzøe, an apprentice of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, the “Father of Danish Painting.” Unfortunately, I learned most of what I’ve written about this church after sitting down to write this blog post.

Side Note

The noise and smell of an asphalt recycling plant overshadowed our town visit. Temporarily set up near the harbor, crews were busy grinding and reheating stripped asphalt, to pave/re-pave roads throughout the town. This operation underscored how a remote community like Uummannaq thoughtfully consumes materials and supplies, since most everything has to be shipped in during the short summer season.

Residential Neighbourhood

In addition to the buildings opened for our visit, Uummannaq has 2 grocery shops, a lumber yard, furniture / fishing gear shop, small shops for clothing / toys, a school, gym, hospital, cafe and more. Once they’d explored the museum, blubber house and old doctor’s house, many of our fellow passengers headed to the cafe for a cup of coffee in the sunshine. We opted to head west along a street that roughly paralleled the coastline, to get a closer look at one of the residential neighbourhoods.

Utilities

Most dwellings appeared to be single-family box homes. We noticed the above-ground utilities early in our visit to Uummannaq. Later, we learned that a good proportion of homes have running water. Other households collect water from “tapping houses” or have it delivered by tanker. Most dwellings with running water have drains for gray water from the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. We earlier saw water coming out of homes and draining down rock faces and assumed this was the case.

There is no sewer system. Some homes have a sludge tank. But most homes use bag toilets. A large plastic bag is placed in a specially designed bucket with a seat and lid, and exhaust through the roof. The individual householders close the plastic bag after it’s full, using a metal strip, and put it outside the front door for collection. The bags are reportedly designed for the task and are of particularly high quality with double welding. The municipality distributes the bags and metal strips and is also responsible for collection. Toilet bags are collected by sanitation workers using a truck, ATV or snowmobile. The bags are manually emptied in a dedicated building. Then the black water is fed by a pipeline into the sea.

I struggled to find comprehensive information about Uummannaq’s electricity. About 70% of electricity used across Greenland is generated by hydro. But there is no hydro potential on Uummannaq. Ummannaq’s solar potential is high, with 2000 hours of sunshine each year. Calgary sits at just under 2400 hours/year. Solar panels are installed at Uummannaq’s sports center. However, with most of Greenland’s daylight in the summer, other sources of power generation (I’m guessing diesel generators) are needed in the winter.

Color-coding

Also subsequent to our trip, we learned that during colonial times, a color-coding system was introduced for buildings. This practical system endured for a long time. Red buildings signified churches, schools, teachers’ or ministers’ houses, and trade. Yellow colors were assigned to hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel. Power works, auto mechanics, teleoperations, and similar resided in green homes and buildings. Blue buildings and housing related to the fish factories. Police stations were black. This system is no longer in use, and today Greenlanders paint their houses any color of the rainbow. 

Details

More than two hours after landing, we headed back to the harbor. We took our time, photographing additional details as we made our way to the hiding spot for a geocache. We found it! Our only geocache logged during our time in Greenland, enough to add it to our geocaching “map.”

Uummannaq Fun Facts

• Founded in 1763, Uummannaq is older than Canmore and Calgary (from a settler’s perspective; indigenous peoples have lived in the Bow Valley for more than 8,000 years)
• Located 590 km north of the Arctic Circle
• Eighth-largest settlement in Greenland (population between 1400 and 1500 people)
• Home to Greenland’s most northerly ferry terminal (until 2006, when a Bahamas company purchased the ferry company)
• Also serviced by helicopter flights from Qaarsut Airport
• Home to the most northern 24-hour care centre for children and young people with social problems – the Uummannaq Children’s Home. Maybe it’s represented in the 2010 movie Inuk wherein a 16 year old troubled boy from Nuuk is sent to Uummannaq, where he joins a local hunter on his annual seal-hunting trip
• Summer home of Santa Claus! He’s got a sod cabin on Spraglebugten Bay (western part of Uummannaq Island) and there’s a giant post box for letters to Santa in the town center
• Home town of Siissisoq, a Greenlandic heavy metal band formed in 1994, considered at the time to be the most popular rock band in Greenland
• Scottish signer-songwriter KT Tunstall wrote Uummannaq Song after visiting in 2008
• Greenland’s first female prime minister, Aleqa Hammond, grew up in Uummannaq

SUMMARY

We walked 5 km during our 2.5 hours out and about in Uummannaq, Greenland. We learned a lot about the town through our observations, and even more while researching and writing this blog post. Reflecting on how much richer our visit would have been with foreknowledge, I am determined to do more advance reading before any future trips.

For Mr GeoK’s Relive video recap, click here.