Gerðuberg

Folklore

Story & Folklore

Gerðuberg is a cliff of columnar basalt on the edge of the Snæfellsnes lava plain — a free-standing wall of dark hexagonal pillars up to 14 metres high and 500 metres long, looking exactly like a natural stone stockade. The columns formed as a thick lava flow cooled from the outside in: as heat dissipated through the surface, the contraction created regular cracks that propagated through the solidifying rock in a hexagonal pattern. The columns at Gerðuberg are unusually large and regular — their geometry is almost hypnotic at close range. Located directly on the main road to Snæfellsnes, a short signed detour from Route 54.