Things to do
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Bifröst
A small settlement in Norðurárdalur built around Bifröst University, a private campus school, on the edge of the Grábrók lava field. It has a shop, a coffee house and a scatter of holiday cabins. It works as a fuel and coffee stop between the crater and the waterfall.
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Borg á Mýrum
Egil's Saga places the family farm here, on a low rise just north of town where Route 54 leaves Route 1 for Snæfellsnes. A church stands beside the farm, and a short walk away is Ásmundur Sveinsson's sculpture Sonatorrek, showing Egill carrying his drowned son. The marked trail to the Einkunnir forest starts from the car park.
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Borgarfjörður
The fjord the town stands on, shallow, scattered with low uninhabited islands, and carrying stronger undercurrents than its calm surface suggests. Route 1 crosses it near the mouth on the Borgarfjarðarbrú, which gives the clearest view of the whole basin. The valleys behind it are the setting of Egil's Saga.
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Borgarnes Swimming Pool
Geothermal water piped from the Deildartunguhver hot spring fills an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, hot tubs and a steam bath here. Children come for the water slides. Shower without a swimsuit before entering, as at every Icelandic pool, and expect it busiest on weekday afternoons once school is out.
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Brákarey
Joined to the old harbour by a short bridge over the Brákarsund strait, this small island holds the town's old industrial buildings, most of them closed. Walk its shore for the widest view down the fjord. At low tide the mud around it looks firm and is not, and the current under the bridge runs hard on a turning tide.
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Einkunnir
Planted forest, rocky knolls and the small Álatjörn pond make up this protected area a few kilometres north of town, crossed by marked paths. The longest leaves from the church at Borg á Mýrum and takes about an hour and a half on foot. From the higher knolls the view runs over the fjord, the town and the mountains behind it.
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Eldborg
An oval spatter cone standing alone on a lava field off Route 54, reached on a marked path from the farm at Snorrastaðir, where there are toilets. The path crosses rough lava, then climbs high steps with fixed chains to the rim, sixty metres above the plain. Allow two hours there and back, and on a clear day the Snæfellsjökull ice cap shows to the west.
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Englendingavík
Restored merchant houses from the town's trading days line this small cove at the western edge of the old town. One of them now holds a restaurant with a veranda over the skerries, and the shore path from the swimming pool arrives here along the water. The cove is a quiet stop for a meal or a coffee at the end of a walk round the old town.
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Gerðuberg
A wall of dolerite columns on the western edge of Hnappadalur, formed when basaltic lava cooled and cracked into shafts between one and one and a half metres across and up to fourteen metres tall. A gravel track leaves Route 54 and runs to the foot of it. It is about 45 kilometres from Borgarnes, on the road onto Snæfellsnes.
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Glanni
A broad, stepped waterfall on the Norðurá just below Bifröst, where the river drops over the edge of the Grábrók lava field into one of the better known salmon pools in the west. A short marked path leads from the golf course to a viewing platform, and the spring-fed hollow of Paradísarlaut lies a few minutes further on.
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Grábrók
A scoria crater rising to about 170 metres beside Hreðavatn, the largest of three on a short fissure that erupted roughly 3,400 years ago. Its lava dammed the Norðurá and formed the lake below. A staircase and boardwalk reach the rim in about fifteen minutes, and the craters have been a protected natural monument since 1962.
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Hafnarfjall
The steep mountain across the fjord from the town, and the nearest summit to climb from it. The usual route leaves Route 1 by the gravel road to Háumelar and follows a long ridge to the summit, with no scrambling, in about three hours. Keep well back from the edge above the highway, where the drops are long, and turn back if cloud sits on the top.
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Hotel Hamar
A single-storey hotel on its own golf course a few minutes' drive north of town, with outdoor hot tubs and wide views over the moors. Away from the town lights it is a good night for the aurora between September and April, and reception will ring the room when the lights appear if asked. Book ahead in summer.
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Hvanneyri
A small settlement on the south shore of Borgarfjörður, built around the Agricultural University of Iceland and a cluster of old farm buildings, one of which holds the national collection of agricultural implements. The wetlands below the village form the Andakíll Ramsar site, a staging ground for migrating geese in spring.
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Landnámssetur Íslands
Two audio-guided exhibitions in restored warehouses by the old harbour, one on the settlement of Iceland and one on Egil's Saga, which takes place in this valley. Each runs about half an hour and the commentary is offered in several languages. It is the one attraction in Borgarnes worth breaking the drive for.
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Skallagrímsgarður
A small wooded park in the middle of town, a five-minute walk uphill from the Settlement Centre. Inside it stands the burial mound of Skallagrímur, father of the saga poet Egill, with a bronze relief by the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen beside it. Benches and lawns make it the town's picnic stop on a dry day.
