Iceland Travel GuideLOCAL TRAVEL AGENCY IN ICELAND
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Iceland Travel GuideLOCAL TRAVEL AGENCY IN ICELAND
My trip
Talk to a local
Gerðuberg is a wall of regular basalt columns, about 7–14 metres high, on the south side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula beside Route 54. It is about 115 km from Reykjavík, free to visit, open all year, and most people stop for 30–60 minutes.
Gerðuberg is a row of hexagonal basalt columns running for roughly half a kilometre. The columns are about 1–1.5 metres wide and 7–14 metres tall, and they stand in a very regular pattern that looks almost built.
What stops people is the symmetry. Hundreds of columns stand side by side like a row of organ pipes, so even that they look hand-carved, and a few of them lean forward as if they were about to fall. The cliffs stand on the western edge of the Hnappadalur valley, 46 km north of Borgarnes.
They formed when a lava flow cooled and cracked into vertical columns. A path leads along the base and up to the top, from where you can look across the lava fields and the coast. It is an easy stop on the way west along Snæfellsnes.
The rock is dolerite, a coarse-grained basalt. When lava cools and shrinks it cracks into vertical columns, often with six sides. The Gerðuberg columns are unusually tall and regular, so they are one of the best examples in Iceland.
The usual explanation is that basalt lava flowed evenly over the land here and cooled slowly, and it is often said that the sea helped to cool it. Slow, even cooling is what makes columns this regular.
Sources describe the lava as roughly 100,000 years old, but ages vary. The area around also has the crater Eldborg and the wide beach at Löngufjörur.
No facilities at Gerðuberg. The nearest shops, cafés and toilets are in Borgarnes and in the villages along Snæfellsnes.
Stay in Borgarnes, Stykkishólmur, Grundarfjörður or at guesthouses around Arnarstapi. Many people do Snæfellsnes as a long day trip from Reykjavík.
On the south side of Snæfellsnes, beside Route 54, about 115 km from Reykjavík.
About 7–14 metres.
Yes, there is no entrance fee and parking is free.
30–60 minutes for a walk along the base and up top.
No. The nearest are in the villages along Snæfellsnes.
Basalt lava that cools slowly and evenly shrinks and cracks into regular, often six-sided columns. At Gerðuberg the cooling was unusually even, so the columns are very regular.
Along the bottom. The trail at the base gives the best view of the columns; the top is optional.
Tours and trips that include Gerðuberg, booked directly with a local travel agency in Iceland.
