Skútustaðagígar Pseudocraters

What makes it special

The green cones look like a cluster of small volcanoes, but none of them is a vent. Lava flowed over the wetland here and turned the water beneath it to steam, and the trapped steam burst up through the hardening rock. The blasts left crisp-edged, bowl-shaped cones.

The largest crater is nearly 250 metres across. From its rim you look down into the grassed bowl and out over the smaller cones along the shore. On a calm day the craters at the water's edge are reflected in it.

Stakhólstjörn, the pond at the centre of the field, is a protected natural monument. The wetlands round it hold Barrow's goldeneye, tufted ducks and red-necked phalaropes.

The whole field, close to 70 hectares, has been protected since 1973 because its formations are fragile.

Visiting

Pick your loop before you set out. The Crater ring (Gígahringur) is the short one, 1.5 km and about half an hour through the western part of the field. It is mostly flat and suits families with children, and its signs explain the craters in Icelandic and English.

For the largest crater, take the Pond ring (Tjarnarhringur), 3.5 km round Stakhólstjörn, and allow an hour. The ground is uneven in places, and after the rim the path runs back along the lakeside.

Rangers work on the site and can tell you which paths are open. Keep to the marked paths the whole way, because stepping off them onto the crater slopes is not allowed.

Tips

Mývatn day tours include the stop, but some leave too little time for the Pond ring, so come on your own if you want the long walk.

Carry a head net, because midges rise off the water on warm, windless days. Of the lake's two kinds, only one bites.