Gunnuhver Hot Springs

About Gunnuhver Hot Springs

Gunnuhver is the loudest stop on the Reykjanes Peninsula, a field of hissing steam vents and boiling mud at the southwest tip of Iceland. Its main mud pool, about 20 meters across, is currently the largest in the country, and on a calm day you can see the steam column from the road long before you arrive.

The name means Gunna's hot spring. Local legend says the ghost of a woman named Guðrún, or Gunna, haunted the district after a quarrel over unpaid rent, until a priest set a trap about 400 years ago and she fell into the spring. Stand in the sulfur-smelling steam for a minute and the story is easy to believe.

The Gunnuhver geothermal area lies inside the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark, and its water is mostly heated seawater, which is unusual in Iceland. Steaming increased sharply after the nearby geothermal power plant began drawing on the reservoir in 2006. Since then, surges of activity have damaged viewing structures and closed the site more than once.

Two wooden viewing ramps keep you on safe ground. One stands next to the main mud pool, where you hear the boiling and feel the steam, while the other sits on Kísilhóll, a silica hill with a view over the whole field. Despite the name Gunnuhver hot springs, nothing here is for bathing, and the ground beyond the railings can scald.

To get there, follow Route 425 to the Reykjanes lighthouse area, about 25 minutes from Keflavík Airport and about an hour from Reykjavík. There's no entrance fee, and 20 to 30 minutes is enough for most visitors. Seismic activity has closed roads on the peninsula at short notice in recent years, so check road.is and safetravel.is before you set off.