Laufskalavarda (Laufskálavarða) is a cluster of stone mounds along a lava ridge by the ring road, roughly halfway between Vik and Kirkjubaejarklaustur – a place with a surprising history behind it.
Laufskalavarda in the past
Although today Laufskalavarda is a tourist stop, its history is vastly different. Early settlers built such mounds to mark trails or other important places. Later local people used these mounds as landmarks, believing that building one could bring them luck on their journeys.
The name itself points to a farm rather than to the cairns: Laufskálavarða means “the cairn of Laufskálar”, and Laufskálar stood somewhere in this area in the early settlement period.
Laufskalavarda is situated at the beginning of the road connecting the South Coast with the North Coast. Today, turning off here onto road 209, and then continuing along F208 and F26 we can get – driving in a rather straight line – to Myvatn and Akureyri on Iceland’s north coast. But even years ago this road, along the western edges of the massive Vatnajokull glacier, called Sprengisandsleid, was a major transport route.
Laufskalavarda today
Modern-day tourists have picked up the habit of building such mounds, even huge ones, themselves. To the point that today it is nearly impossible to find rocks for a new mound. And as the legend goes, destroying someone else’s mound brings bad luck…
Cairns cannot be dated, so there is no telling how old any of them are – many were clearly piled up in recent years. Anyway, it is a nice place to stop and enjoy the views. When the light is right it can be really photogenic. In good weather Laufskalavarda offers a magnificent view of the Mýrdalsjökull glacier and the Katla volcano hidden beneath it.
How to get to Laufskalavarda
The cairns lie right beside road number 1, on the lava between the rivers Hólmsá and Skálm, north of the Álftaver district – about 40 km (25 miles) east of Vik and about 35 km (22 miles) west of Kirkjubaejarklaustur. There is a parking area with toilets near Laufskálavarða.
Driving west from here you cross the black sands toward Hjörleifshöfði and its Yoda cave; to the east, at Kirkjubaejarklaustur, wait two small waterfalls – Systrafoss and Stjórnarfoss – and the canyon of Fjadrargljufur.
