Kirkjufell

Kirkjufell, "Church Mountain", rises 463 metres straight out of the shoreline on the north coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland. It is not high, but it stands alone, and from most angles it reads as a single steep cone with a slightly bent tip — the shape that has made it, by common claim, the most photographed mountain in the country.

The mountain's clean outline comes from ice. During the glacial periods Kirkjufell stood above the surrounding ice sheet as a nunatak, and the glaciers ground away the land around it while its flanks were steepened. Its body is layered: bands of Pleistocene lava alternate with sandstone, and a cap of tuff crowns the summit. Those layers are visible as faint horizontal stripes across its slopes, especially after snow picks them out. Although built partly of volcanic rock, it has never been a volcano itself.

The classic view is from the east, where the small stream of Kirkjufellsfoss drops over a few low steps and gives the peak a foreground. The mountain also appeared in the television series Game of Thrones as the "arrowhead mountain". The ascent itself is a serious scramble on steep, loose ground that turns dangerous when wet; most visitors are content to walk the shore and watch the light change on its sides.

Getting there

Kirkjufell stands just west of the fishing town of Grundarfjörður, on road 54 along the north coast of Snæfellsnes, roughly 180 km by road from Reykjavík — a drive of around two and a half hours. International flights arrive at Keflavík (KEF), southwest of Reykjavík; the nearest airport in a straight line, Ísafjörður (IFJ), lies across Breiðafjörður in the Westfjords and is not a practical approach. The Kirkjufellsfoss viewpoint is about 3 km west of Grundarfjörður.