Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The church
Kirkjubæjarklaustur's modern church is sided in granite slabs and has an unusual facade
resembling a ski lodge. The village has had religious associations since Irish monks set
up camp here before the Settlement; a Benedictine convent was later established in
1186, though two of its nuns had the misfortune to be burned at the stake for heresy.
But it was during the Lakagígar eruptions that the church here achieved national fame:
as lava flows edged into the town, the pastor, Jón Steingrímsson , delivered what became
known as the “Fire Sermon”, and the lava halted. It's possible to climb the escarpment
behind the church by means of a chain, and from the top there's a fine view of the
diverted flow, and also of Landbrot, a collection of a thousand-odd pseudocraters
(see p.254) formed during another eruption in 950.
Kirkjugólf
A kilometre or so along the road heading north from Kirkjubæjarklaustur, you'll
find a field known as Kirkjugólf , or Church Floor, apparently paved in a small patch
of hexagonal tiles. These “tiles” are in fact the tops of basalt columns - similar to
those at Svartifoss (see p.298) - formed during a prehistoric eruption and now
exposed by erosion.
7
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
KIRKJUBÆJARKLAUSTUR
By bus All Ringroad buses stop at Kirkjubæjarklaustur, as
do summer Fjallabak services travelling inland via Eldgjá
and Landmannalaugar. From mid-June until early
September, Reykjavík Excursions ( W re.is) also runs
Skaftafell-Kirkjubæjarklaustur-Lakagígar day-trips (see
p.303). Buses stop at the N1 fuel station.
Destinations Eldgjá (1 daily; 1hr 30min); Hella (3 daily;
3hr); Hvolsvöllur (3 daily; 2hr 50min); Höfn (3 daily; 4hr
45min); Jökulsárlón (3 daily; 2hr); Landmannalaugar
(1 daily; 4hr); Reykjavík (3 daily; 4hr 50min); Selfoss
(3 daily; 3hr 50min); Seljalandsfoss (3 daily; 2hr 30min);
Skaftafell (3 daily; 1hr 5min); Skógar (3 daily; 1hr 55min);
Vík (3 daily; 1hr 15min).
Tourist information The tourist o ce at Klausturvegur
15 (June-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm;
T 487 4620, W klaustur.is) isn't of great use, though there
are the usual toilets and piles of brochures, and they also
sell maps.
Services Klausturvegur has an N1 fuel station and
roadhouse, a bank with ATM, a supermarket (Mon-Sat
9am-9pm) and small swimming pool with children's slide
and hot tub (daily 9.30am-9pm).
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Campsite Kirkjubær II farm T 894 4495. Grassy space
behind the shopping complex sheltered by trees, with a
kitchen, small indoor dining area, bathroom and laundry.
1100kr
Hótel Klaustur Klausturvegur 6 T 487 4900,
W icelandairhotels.is. Curiously upmarket business hotel
for such an insubstantial, isolated town. The decor is Nordic
- antiseptic white rooms with clinical lines - and there are
no less th an four conference rooms. Breakfast is 1500kr.
27,400kr
Systraka Klausturvegur T 487 4848. Set in Klaustur's
small shopping complex, this pleasant café offers a broad
menu, including vegetarian options - chicken salad
(1600kr), fermented shark with vodka shot chaser (1800kr),
garlic mushrooms (1300kr) - plus the usual complement of
lamb and fish grills, burgers and pizza. Daily noon-8pm.
Lakagígar
Some 50km northwest of Kirkjubæjarklaustur via a rugged jeep track, Lakagígar -
the Laki Craters - are evidence of the most catastrophic volcanic event of Iceland's
recorded history. In June 1783, the earth here split into a 25km-long fissure that,
over the next seven months, poured out a continuous thick blanket of poisonous ash
and smoke and enough lava to cover six hundred square kilometres. So thick were
the ash clouds that they reached as far as northern Europe, where they caused poor
harvests; in Iceland, however, there were no harvests at all, and livestock dropped
dead, poisoned by eating fluorine-tainted grass. Over the next three years Iceland's
population plummeted by a quarter - through starvation, earthquakes and an outbreak
of smallpox - to just 38,000 people, at which point the Danish government considered
evacuating the survivors to Jutland.
 
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