Svínafellsjökull Glacier

About Svínafellsjökull Glacier

Svínafellsjökull is an outlet glacier of Öræfajökull, the ice-covered volcano at the southern edge of Vatnajökull, flowing down between steep mountain walls to end in a small lagoon just a few kilometres east of Skaftafell in Vatnajökull National Park. It is one of the easiest glacier tongues in Iceland to see up close from a car park, and its crevassed ice and grey moraines have been used as a filming location for Interstellar, Batman Begins and the scenes beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones.

A short gravel road leads from Route 1 to a small parking area near the glacier snout, about five minutes' drive from the Skaftafell visitor centre. From there a marked path takes you in a few minutes to viewpoints above the ice and the meltwater lagoon, where you can see the blue-and-black banded ice, the icefall higher up and how far the glacier has retreated in recent decades. There is no charge to visit the viewpoint.

The glacier itself is closed to tours. Cracks were found in 2014 and 2018 in the Svínafellsheiði mountainside above the glacier, where a slope of possibly more than 60 million cubic metres is slowly moving. Iceland's Civil Protection has directed operators not to take groups onto Svínafellsjökull and advises visitors to stay only briefly at the viewpoints by the glacier edge. Never walk onto the ice; guided glacier hikes in the Skaftafell area now use neighbouring Falljökull instead.

The viewpoint can be visited all year, though the gravel access road may be icy or rough in winter. Allow 20 to 30 minutes. The glacier combines easily with Skaftafell, Svartifoss and the Svínafell campsite, and is on the way to Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón further east. For a view from above, helicopter flights from Skaftafell follow Svínafellsjökull and its neighbours.