Hellnar

About Hellnar

The Hellnar cliffs line a small cove on the south coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, where a handful of houses, a church and a small café are all that remain of a once-busy fishing station. Snæfellsjökull rises right behind the village, and on a clear day the ice cap fills the whole view inland.

Hellnar sits just off Route 574 on the edge of Snæfellsjökull National Park, roughly two and a half hours by car from Reykjavík. The shoreline between here and Arnarstapi has been a protected nature reserve since 1979, because the surf has carved the old lava into arches, fissures and caves.

The best of it is at the water's edge. Valasnös, a rock headland, juts into the bay, and inside it is Baðstofa, a sea cave where light reflected off the water throws shifting colors onto the walls. Calm seas and low tide get you closest. Through the summer, seabirds nest on the ledges above the cove, and you'll hear them well before you see them.

By local tradition, Hellnar is the birthplace of Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, who sailed to Vinland around the year 1000 and is said to have given birth to the first European child born in North America. A statue of her stands at Laugarbrekka, just above the village.

Most visitors pair the village with the coastal path from Arnarstapi to Hellnar, about 2.5 km each way along the cliff tops past sea stacks and the Gatklettur arch. Plan on an hour one way at an easy pace, longer if you stop for photos. Parking in Hellnar is tight, so many people leave the car in Arnarstapi and walk over and back, a good two to three hours in all.

Fjöruhúsið, the café on the beach facing Baðstofa, serves soup and coffee in the warmer months, but its season and hours vary, so don't count on it outside summer. In winter the clifftop path can be icy and very windy, and you should keep well back from the edges.