Aldeyjarfoss

At Aldeyjarfoss the glacial river Skjálfandafljót plunges about 20 metres into a pool framed by columns of black basalt, and the contrast — milky white water against rows of dark, regular stone pillars — makes it one of the most striking waterfalls in northern Iceland. The fall lies at the northern end of the Sprengisandur route, where the inhabited valley of Bárðardalur gives way to the empty central highlands.

The columns belong to the Bárðardalur lava, a flow roughly 9,000 years old that spread down the valley; the river drops over the edge where the lava meets older bedrock. As the lava cooled slowly, it contracted and cracked into the polygonal pillars now exposed in the walls of the gorge. The river has also cut into a pseudocrater — a cone formed when lava flowed over wet ground and steam burst up through it. The effect is often compared to Svartifoss in the south of the country, which is far smaller.

Skjálfandafljót rises at the northwestern edge of the Vatnajökull ice cap and runs north, roughly parallel to the Sprengisandur highland road, to the bay of Skjálfandi. Along the way it forms a chain of waterfalls: Aldeyjarfoss, Hrafnabjargafoss, Barnafoss and Ullarfoss, and in the lowlands, near the Ring Road, the broad horseshoe of Goðafoss. The cliffs around Aldeyjarfoss are a nesting place for gyrfalcons, merlins, pink-footed and greylag geese and goosanders.

Getting there

Aldeyjarfoss lies at the head of Bárðardalur in northern Iceland. The nearest town is Akureyri, about 50 km to the northwest in a straight line, and Akureyri Airport (AEY) is about 47 km away. From the Ring Road near Goðafoss, Road 842 runs some 40 km up the valley and continues as the highland road F26; the falls are a short distance past the point where one becomes the other.