Hjörleifshöfði

About this place

Hjörleifshöfði is a lone 221 m mountain of volcanic palagonite rising from the black sands of the Mýrdalssandur plain in south Iceland, about 12 km in a straight line east of the village of Vík. It was once an island in the Atlantic. The mountain is named after Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson, one of the first settlers named in the Book of Settlements and blood brother of Ingólfur Arnarson, Iceland's first official settler; he settled here at the end of the 9th century, and a mound on the summit is said to be his grave. With the eruptions of Katla beneath the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, glacial floods brought huge amounts of sand and gravel that surrounded the mountain and pushed the sea away. The mountain looks like a flat-topped green block in a desert of black sand, ringed by purple lupins in summer. At its foot is the large Gígjagjá cave, known as «Yoda Cave» because its opening, seen from inside, resembles the head of the film character, and from the top the view stretches over the black shore and the ocean. It is reached by a short gravel track from the Ring Road. The path to the summit is steep at first, and the wind on the plain is strong and can carry sand, so bring glasses and a jacket.