Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [167]
From the farm Tunga, at the southwestern foot of Tindastóll, it’s an 8km climb to the Trölli mountain hut at N 65°42.603’, W 19°53.163’. The hut has 18 beds but no cooking facilities. To book, contact Ferðafélags Skagafirðinga ( 862 5907; www.ffs.is) or ask at the tourist office in VarmahlíÐ.
Drangey & Málmey
Guarding the mouth of Skagafjörður are the uninhabited islands of Drangey and Málmey, tranquil havens for nesting sea birds. Both are accessible on summer boat tours.
The tiny rocky islet of Drangey (drown-gay), in the middle of Skagafjörður, is a dramatic flat-topped mass of tuff with 170m-high sheer cliff sides rising abruptly from the water. The cliffs serve as nesting sites for around a million sea birds, and have been used throughout Iceland’s history as ‘nature’s grocery store’. Grettir’s Saga recounts that both Grettir and his brother Illugi lived on the island for three years and were slain there.
The gentler 2.5-sq-km Málmey rises to just over 150m and is known mainly for its abundance of sea birds. Legend has it that no couple could live here for more than 20 years or the wife would disappear. Málmey has been uninhabited since 1951.
Drangeyjarferðir (Jón Eiríksson; 847 9800, 453 6310; tours Ikr6000) is the only formal tour operator that visits Drangey, offering three-hour trips departing from Reykir (near Grettislaug; left), 16km north of Sauðarkrókur. Málmeyarferðir ( 894 2881; tours Ikr5000), based in Hólsos, runs boat trips to Málmey (minimum six people). Tours are in Icelandic, but informative brochures are available in English. The information centre in Varmahlíð can help you book either adventure.
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HÓLAR Í HJALTADALUR
With its prominent red-sandstone church dwarfed by the looming Tröllskagi mountains, tiny Hólar (www.holar.is) makes an interesting historical detour from the Ring Rd. The bishopric of Hólar was the ecumenical and educational capital of northern Iceland between 1106 and the Reformation, and it continued as a religious centre and the home of the northern bishops until 1798, when the bishop’s seat was abolished.
Hólar then became a vicarage until 1861, when the vicarage was shifted west to Viðvík. In 1882 the present agricultural school was established, and in 1952 the vicarage returned to Hólar.
Sights
Completed in 1763, Hólar’s red-sandstone cathedral ( 10am-6pm Jun-Aug, Sun services 11am, evening prayer 6pm) was built from stone taken from looming Hólabyrða, and is the oldest stone church in Iceland. The church was financed by donations from Lutheran congregations all over Scandinavia and is brimming with historical works of art, including a baptismal font carved from a piece of soapstone that washed in from Greenland on an ice floe. The extraordinary carved altarpiece was made in Germany (or the Netherlands – no one knows for sure) around 1500 and was donated by the last Catholic bishop of Hólar, Jón Arason, in 1522. After he and his sons were executed at Skálholt for opposition to the Danish Reformation, his remains were brought to Hólar and entombed in the bell tower. The present church tower was built in 1950 as a memorial. It contains a mosaic of the good reverend, a chapel and his tomb.
You can pick up a church leaflet from the information desk in the accommodation block.
An informative historical-trail brochure (available at the info desk) guides you round some of the other buildings at Hólar and is well worth picking up. Nýibær is an historical turf farm dating from the mid-19th century and inhabited until 1945. Although the rooms here are unfurnished, a leaflet gives a good insight into how the buildings would have looked