Line © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), checked by Global Adventurer.
The walk
From the car park below the lighthouse walk 250 m east along the road, then follow a path marked with poles south to the shore, then along the boulder coast past the small Reykjanestá light at the southern tip, and on east and north with the sea on your right. The path turns inland past Skálafell, a lava shield split by fissures, to the big mud pool of Gunnuhver. Return along the Gunnuhver access road and road 443 to the lighthouse.
It is 6.3 km round with 62 m of ascent; allow about 1½ hours. The grade is Easy: rough lava and gravel paths, nearly level, and about 1 km of quiet road.
Waves here are unpredictable: keep well back from the surf and the cliff edges. At Gunnuhver the ground round the pool is boiling clay, so keep to the ramps. The path up Valahnúkur, the cliff hill by the start, is fenced off after new cracks opened. Nothing on this walk is closed, but the Met Office expects a new eruption on the Sundhnúkur crater row, some 15 km away: check safetravel.is on the day.
Parka charges 1,000 ISK per four hours at the lighthouse car parks; the Gunnuhver car parks show no fee. Road 425 is cleared only on set days in winter, and there is no bus.
Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.
Good to know
- Reykjanesviti, built in 1907 and 1908 on Bæjarfell, is Iceland's oldest lighthouse station; the first light stood on Valahnúkur
- Gunnuhver's main mud pool, about 20 m across, is named in folklore after the ghost Gunna, said to be trapped in it
- Skálafell is a lava shield split by fissures, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge comes ashore
- Out to sea stand the stack Karlinn and, about 15 km off, the gannet island of Eldey
Getting there
Start: Reykjanesviti car park. 63.81440, -22.70391
Directions to the start
Paths change, and the weather decides the day. The line and figures come from OpenStreetMap and our own checks; take a map, check the forecast, and turn back if it isn't right.