Háifoss
Interesting facts
- The falls had no fixed name until about 1900, when geologist Helgi Pjeturss, later the first Icelander with a doctorate in geology, is credited with naming Háifoss, "High Falls".
- The Fossá splits into two arms about 750 metres upstream; one forms Háifoss, the other Granni, and the streams reunite at the bottom of the gorge.
- Háifoss and its neighbour Granni stand less than 250 metres apart, with Granni carrying noticeably less water over its 101-metre drop.
- Despite its name, Þjórsárdalur is not crossed by the Þjórsá; Iceland's longest river only flows past the valley's mouth.
- The valley floor is covered by lava from a Veiðivötn eruption over 3,000 years ago, which created countless pseudocraters as it spread across wet ground.
- A Nordic archaeological expedition dug up six farms in the valley in 1939; among its students was Kristján Eldjárn, later President of Iceland.
- Work on the ash layers of Þjórsárdalur helped geologist Sigurður Þórarinsson develop tephrochronology, dating sites by layers of volcanic ash.
- Further down the same river lies Hjálparfoss, a twin fall over a lava edge, protected together with Háifoss, Granni and the Gjáin gorge in 2020.
Why it is worth it
Háifoss drops 122 metres in a single clean fall from the edge of a highland plateau into a deep, narrow gorge, and for most of the twentieth century it was counted as Iceland's second-highest waterfall. Newer measurements place it behind Morsárfoss, Glymur and Hengifoss, but the setting has lost nothing: the river Fossá, about 12 metres wide at the lip, pours off the plateau into a canyon at the head of the Þjórsárdalur valley, not far from the volcano Hekla.
A few hundred metres away, a second waterfall named Granni — Icelandic for neighbour — falls about 101 metres into the same gorge, fed by another arm of the same river. Seen from the rim above, the two fall side by side, two white threads in a single gorge. The Fossá flows on to join the Þjórsá, Iceland's longest river. Háifoss was declared a protected natural monument in 2020.
The valley below has been shaped by Hekla and its neighbours. Repeated eruptions blanketed Þjórsárdalur in pumice, and the great eruption of 1104 buried the farm of Stöng, which was excavated in 1939. A reconstruction based on it, Þjóðveldisbærinn, showing how a farmhouse of the Saga Age was laid out, stands lower in the valley near the Búrfell power station. A walking route follows the Fossá from the ruins of Stöng up to the falls, a round trip of five to six hours, while a track reaches a viewpoint on the plateau above the gorge.
Getting there
Háifoss lies in southern Iceland, at the head of the Þjórsárdalur valley. The nearest town of any size is Selfoss, about 70 km to the southwest; the village of Flúðir is about 30 km away. The approach is by Route 32 through the valley, then the unpaved Road 332 to a car park above the falls. Keflavík International Airport (KEF) is about 145 km to the west in a straight line, and Reykjavík's domestic airport (RKV) about 110 km.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Gullfoss 24.9 km · waterfall
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Háifoss is a waterfall situated near the volcano Hekla in southern Iceland. The waterfall Granni is next to it. The river Fossá, a tributary of Þjórsá, drops here from a height of 122 m. This is the fourth highest waterfall of the island, after Morsárfoss, Glymur and Hengifoss.
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