I stayed at the beautiful Hotel Laki in Efri-Vík recently while exploring an area of Iceland called Landbrot.
I had heard about interesting sights in this area on a TV program back in 2013, and I so wanted to explore this part of South Iceland.
To reach Hotel Laki and this area, you turn off Ring Road 1 just before entering Kirkjubæjarklaustur village, a popular stop with lovely surroundings.
After 5 km, this big hotel appeared out of nowhere. It was my first time here, and I genuinely didn’t expect to find something so large and modern in this spot.
Hotel Laki Efri-Vík farm
Hotel Laki is a family-run hotel, owned by Hörður Davíðsson and his wife, Salome Ragnarsdóttir, together with their daughter, Eva Björk Harðardóttir, and her husband, Þorsteinn Kristinsson.
They have been living on the farm at Efri-Vík since 1968. They started as farmers, but in 1973, they started a small-scale travel service.
They live next to the hotel, which they started building in 2005. Given that it is family-owned, the scale surprised me. It has 64 rooms plus 15 cottages behind the hotel.
The hotel is named after Lakagígar, a row of craters some 40 km away. At Lakagígar, the biggest natural disaster in Iceland‘s known history took place in 1783, known as the Skaftáreldar eruption.
Hotel Laki
Hörður was kind enough to take me on a guided tour of his land.
I was genuinely amazed at how much there is to see. There is even an Elf City and an Elf Church, which I had no idea existed. Those of you who follow my blog know I am always hunting for new elf locations, so this was a real treat.
I fell in love with the Elf City and Elf Church and wrote a dedicated travel blog about them — you can read it for the full story, the elf tales, and plenty of photos.
The amazing Elf City and Elf Church by Hotel Laki in South Iceland
The Elf City
Hörður is a remarkably knowledgeable man, and I have deep respect for people of his caliber.
He told us story after story and showed us the farm ruins from Skaftáreldar in 1783, the turf house they are building, the Bunker of ash layers, and the remains of the 11th-century wall Bjarnagarður — and he explained all the pseudocraters in the area, called Landbrotshólar pseudocraters.
You can pick up a map at the Hotel Laki reception and follow the educational path, which connects all the sights mentioned above.
I have written about each of these in detail in my travel blog — I found every single one worth the visit.
Our room on our first visit to Hotel Laki
Our room was spacious and well put together — comfortable bed, flat-screen TV, and a view over the meadows, mountains, and cottages. I felt properly looked after. I have stayed in all kinds of hotels, guesthouses, hostels, and tents in camping areas all around Iceland, and Hotel Laki sits firmly in my top 5.
Kudos to this family for a job well done! And kudos to them for offering our nurses and doctors a free stay during the pandemic 🙂
See also: Various accommodations in Iceland.
Our room
There is a lovely sitting area by the restaurant where you can sit outside on a veranda and take in the view.
Hotel Laki sits between two glaciers — Öræfajökull glacier to the east and the dreaded volcano Katla in Mýrdalsjökull to the west.
I didn’t eat at the restaurant because I was out exploring all day, and I only drink coffee for breakfast — but my husband had breakfast there and said it was good. And he does love his food 😉
At Hotel Laki
You can go up to the roof of Hotel Laki, where there is a glasshouse with a wide view — perfect for watching the Northern Lights on winter nights.
I can imagine sitting up there in a heated glasshouse with a blanket and something warm to drink while the lights move across the sky. I wish I had something like that in my home in Reykjavík — I usually watch the Northern Lights freezing on my balcony 😉
The Bunker of Ash Layers
Öskulagabyrgið – the Bunker of Ash Layers
Hörður, the owner of the hotel and the land, has erected a Bunker of Ash Layers (öskulagabyrgi) by the road opposite his hotel.
He showed it to me, and I found it genuinely exciting. I had never seen ash layers before, except inside the ice cave tunnel in Langjökull glacier.
Seeing layers of ash from different volcanic eruptions, each one stacked on the next, is a strange and compelling thing.
Öskulagabyrgið – the Bunker of Ash Layers
I think this has to be a must-visit for geologists and anyone with an interest in geology. You can read the geological history of Iceland on the walls of the bunker in sedimentary strata — it really is quite extraordinary.
Think about how many eruptions it takes to coat an area in layer upon layer of ash. Here you can see what amount to CAT scans of these different volcanic events, going all the way back to the Settlement of Iceland.
You will be able to see ash layers from disastrous flooding from before the year 900, from the volcanic eruption in Veiðivötn in 1204, from the volcanic eruption in Katla in 1240, from the Öræfagos eruption in 1362, from the Skaftáreldar eruption in 1783, and from the Katla eruption in 1918!
Öskulagabyrgið – the Bunker of Ash Layers
Hörður is digging a deeper hole, as he says there are layers 5-6 meters below that appear to have come from a catastrophic flood following a massive volcanic eruption — one that may have led to the formation of the area called Landbrot.
I peered down into the hole on my visit, but I plan to return once Hörður has finished this fascinating project.
Remains of the 11th-century Bjarnargarður Wall
Remains of the 11th-century Bjarnargarður Wall
Besides the Bunker of ash layers — and inside it — you can find the remains of the old wall Bjarnagarður, one of the most significant preserved man-made structures from the olden times, dating back to the 11th century.
In the photo above, I am walking inside the collapsed wall.
This 11th-century wall is evidence that traditional farming has been practiced in this area since the Settlement of Iceland.
The bunker has been dug through the remains of Bjarnagarður, so inside the bunker you can see exactly what the wall was made of.
Remains of the 11th-century Bjarnargarður Wall
The inside of the Bjarnagarður wall is exposed in the Bunker of ash layers, as you can see in my photo above. “Áfok að Bjarnagarði” to the left means subaerial deposition to the Bjarnagarður wall, and to the right you can see the wall itself.
Bjarnagarður was an 8-10 km long wall, most likely erected to keep sheep in — or out — so it is probably sheep-related.
Walls like this were built to protect meadows and pastures legally. Most of it has collapsed over the centuries, through all these volcanic eruptions, but in some places you can still see it clearly, even in its fallen state.
Replica of the remains of the 11th-century Bjarnargarður Wall – it is just a little lower than I
Hörður has erected a 50-m-long replica of the Bjarnagarður wall in front of the Bunker of ash layers on his land in Efri-Vík, so visitors can get a sense of how high and massive the original must have been.
Hörður has named this 50 m long wall “Mórallinn” — or the Guilty Conscience.
He has bequeathed 3 meters of the wall to the Road Administration of Iceland (Vegagerðin) and 5 metres of the wall to the Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland (Minjastofnun) — since neither of these establishments has done anything to protect or inform people in this area about the Bjarnagarður wall — so they should have a guilty conscience, in his opinion 😉
I hope this has been corrected.
Replica of the remains of the 11th-century Bjarnargarður Wall
Written in Jónsbók, an Icelandic law book from 1281, is the following sentence: “Hver maður skal löggarð gera um töðuvöll sinn” — meaning that everybody should build a wall around their hayfield — and this could well be the reason why this massive wall was built in the first place.
Landbrotshólar pseudocraters
Landbrotshólar pseudocraters
Landbrotshólar pseudocraters are well worth a visit. This is the largest area of pseudocraters in Iceland, covering about 50 sq km.
Pseudocraters, or rootless cones, form when extremely hot lava flows into wetlands. When that lava hits the water, the water boils and steam explosions occur.
Landbrotshólar pseudocraters
It is not exactly known when these pseudocraters formed, but they most likely date from the massive volcanic eruption in Eldgjá in 934-938.
Eldgjá lies parallel with the Lakagígar craters.
The pseudocraters are hollow inside, and you can find some open ones and look in — which is genuinely interesting. I have read that some of the hollow craters were used as sheep shelters, and I found one that had been used as a refuse dump. We also found one large hollow pseudocrater and, in the photo below, you can see my husband climbing down inside it.
My husband inside one of the Landbrotshólar pseudocraters
There are thousands of pseudocraters here, some shaped like cones and pyramids, others round and almost bosom-like.
See also: the unique Phenomenon of Pseudocraters in Iceland
Hólasport at Efri-Vík by Hotel Laki offers ATV/Quad biking tours to the Landbrotshólar pseudocraters and other interesting areas in the vicinity.
The Bird-Watching Hut at Efri-Vík
The Bird-Watching Hut at Efri-Vík
Behind Hotel Laki, you will find a beautiful little lake called Lake Víkurflóð, where it is possible to catch brown trout and Arctic char. Angling licenses are available at the hotel reception.
By the lake sits a small yellow hut used for bird-watching — the lake attracts a huge variety of birds. Binoculars are provided, and the walls are lined with posters of local birds and fish, along with books on birdlife.
Bird watching at The Bird-Watching Hut at Efri-Vík
I was told that swans moved into the hut shortly after the owners built it and lived there for some years 🙂 I would have loved to see that.
Farm Ruins from the Skaftáreldar Eruption in 1783
Farm Ruins from the Skaftáreldar Eruption in 1783
On the land of Efri-Vík, you can see the ruins of an old farm that was abandoned during the catastrophic Skaftáreldar volcanic eruption in 1783, which took place at Lakagígar some 40 km away from Efri-Vík.
Some 29 farms in this area were abandoned during this massive eruption. The gaseous plumes killed the livestock, and famine followed. 20% of the Icelandic population — some 10,000 people — lost their lives during these disastrous times.
Skaftáreldar caused destruction on a scale that is hard to fathom. It is the biggest lava flow on earth from a single eruption in historic times, and the gaseous plumes caused the following winter to be cold across all of Europe.
I found one tour to Lakagígar: an 8-hour super jeep tour of Fjaðrárgljúfur and Lakagígar.
It is difficult to photograph such ruins, even though they are clearly visible to the naked eye. You can see the ruins of a foundry, a sitting room (baðstofa), a horticultural garden, a storehouse, a barn, and a stable.
The ruins of the old turf farm are in the meadow by Hotel Laki, and they are marked on the map of the surrounding area available at the hotel reception.
The turf house
The turf house at Efri-Vík in 2016
In the photo below, you will see the owner of the land and Hotel Laki, Hörður, standing with me by the turf house he and his family are building.
They don’t want the old art of turf house construction to be forgotten. They took a course in turf house making so they could build one on their land and show guests this traditional Icelandic building method.
With Hörður by the turf house in 2016
It is a brilliant idea. I am looking into attending a course in turf house building in Skagafjörður myself.
I stayed for another night at Hotel Laki in September 2020 with my mother, as I wanted to show her this wonderful place. By then, the turf house looked like this:
The turf house in September 2020
I am a big fan of turf houses and have visited and written about almost all of the remaining turf houses and turf churches in Iceland.
I had a lovely stay, and the next day I drove down to the far end of Landbrot to keep exploring.
I came across a peculiar pillar of rock — lava — on the land of Þykkvibær. It reminded me of Lóndrangar cliffs on the Snæfellsnes peninsula. I have found no information on this lava rock, but I am convinced it is elf-related.
If anyone reading my travel blog has information on this rock, I would be very grateful 🙂
A strange rock formation
Hotel Laki and the Elf City are located 262 km away from Reykjavík and only 5 km away from Kirkjubæjarklaustur village. Turn from Ring Road 1 onto Road 204.
To visit, you can rent a car in Reykjavík and drive there, spending the night at the hotel along the way.
The route passes many interesting sights, including the beautiful waterfalls of South Iceland, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, and Foss at Síða & Dverghamrar — just a few of the highlights along the south coast.
At the Elf City by Hotel Laki
Here you can see the location of Hotel Laki on Google Maps.
See also:
The Beautiful Elf City and Elf Church by Hotel Laki in South Iceland
Have a lovely time in South Iceland 🙂
