Tjörnin

About Tjörnin

Tjörnin lake is the pond in the middle of downtown Reykjavík, with City Hall on its northern shore and the old town's timber houses around it. Its name simply means "the pond," and it is two connected ponds, Norðurtjörn and Suðurtjörn, ringed by footpaths.

The pond began as a sea lagoon that was cut off more than 1,200 years ago and slowly turned to fresh water. Today it is fed by groundwater from the Vatnsmýri marsh to the south.

Birds are the reason most people stop. Waterfowl here have been protected since 1919, when boating was banned so they could nest on the islets in peace, and five duck species breed at the pond regularly, mallards most of all. Greylag geese and gulls are always around too.

Leave the bread at home. The city asks visitors not to feed it to the ducks, because it draws gulls that also prey on the smallest ducklings, and leftovers feed algae in the shallow water. If you want to feed the birds, oats or frozen peas are better choices.

Paths circle both ponds and lead south into Hljómskálagarðurinn, a park planted from 1914 and named after its 1923 bandstand, and on into the Vatnsmýri bird reserve, whose paths are open outside the nesting season. A loop of Lake Tjörnin with a detour into the park takes half an hour to an hour. It is free and open at all hours, and from Austurvöllur square you are there in a couple of minutes on foot.

Winter changes the scene. In hard frost both large ponds freeze, and Tjörnin has served as Reykjavík's outdoor skating rink for so long that the Reykjavík Skating Club dates back to 1892. Warm water keeps a patch open near Iðnó, where the birds crowd together through the cold months, so only head out onto the ice when it is clearly solid and locals are already skating.