Eastern and southeast Iceland - The Rough Guide to Iceland - page 275

Gunnar Gunnarsson's house
Daily June-Aug 10am-6pm • 700kr
Despite being born and raised in the Skriðuklaustur area, poet and novelist
Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975) was educated in Denmark and wrote mostly
in Danish; the first volume of his farming epic Guest the One-eyed became the
first feature film made in Iceland. He returned to his homeland in 1939, building
the house at Skriðuklaustur before his wife's ill-health forced a permanent move
to Reykjavík.
Upstairs are two exhibitions : one on Gunnar's life, with rooms restored to their 1930s
appearance; the other covering the history of the monastery , including plans and video
reconstructions of the site, human bones from the cemetery, and artefacts recovered
from nearby farms - including a large wooden Madonna and child statue - which were
once church property. Downstairs is the popular ÌKlausturkaffi restaurant, the only one
at the lake (see below).

Monastery site
Daily June-Aug 10am-6pm • Guided tours 1.30pm & 3.30pm • 300kr
In recent years Skriðuklaustur's original monastery site , covering some 1500
square metres, has been located and excavated at the foot of the low slope between
Gunnarsson's house and the lake. Founded in 1493 by the Augustinians, the cloisters
were destroyed just sixty years later during the Reformation, though a church remained
here until 1792. Bones from the hospital cemetery (on display at Gunnarsson's house)
have yielded surprising details - it seems that syphilis was present in Iceland much
earlier than previously believed - whilst fragments of stained glass indicate unexpected
elegance for this relatively small religious centre. Dry-stone walls mark out former
building foundations, but there's no interpretation offered, so take a guided tour or
visit the exhibition up at the house first.

7

Snæfellsstofa Visitor Centre
June-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm • Free
The modern concrete, steel and glass building is a little out of place in such an
otherwise rural valley, but there's informative digital, video and display board
coverage of the highland ecology and geology around Snæfell, just an hour's drive
away up Route 910. The shop also sells birch sap, tapped from the forests across
the lake.

EATING SKRIÐUKLAUSTUR

Ì Klausturka T 471 2992. Pleasant café-
restaurant in the basement of Gunnar Gunnarsson's house
with lakeside views and a generous lunch buffet -
meatballs, stew, quiche, salads, cake, fruit and coffee for

just 2500kr. Alternatives include a rich fish soup (1690kr),
reindeer pie (2890kr) or afternoon cake buffet (1750kr).
May-Aug daily 11am-5pm.

Hengifoss
Around 7km north of Skriðuklaustur, a good-sized parking bay and a noticeboard
marks the start of an hour-long return walk up to Hengifoss , whose 118m curtain
makes this Iceland's third-highest falls. The path isn't especially steep but is unformed
in places, crossing a couple of boggy patches around lesser Litlifoss , whose narrow spray
is fringed in wild rock formations of basalt columns, bent in all directions. Hengifoss
itself drops of the top of the plateau over a cliff-face layered in distinct black and red
bands, composed of compressed ash from separate volcanic eruptions. The path proper
ends at a viewpoint well back from the base of the falls, though with care you can
follow rougher trails to within 250m of the water.