Black beach on the south coast of Iceland. Black sand. Black Beach Vik photo

I liked Vik very much, or rather it would be more correct to say that it was not the town itself that left the impression, but its surroundings. The natural attractions here are at the highest level. Here you will find black volcanic beaches, basalt columns scattered along the Atlantic coast, and grottoes of the most bizarre shape, rocks sticking straight out of the water. And, of course, the pride of the country, puffins - a bird that looks like either a penguin or a parrot...
Well, in general, look.

I'll start in order:

The town of Vik is located in the very south of Iceland, or rather, it is the southernmost settlement of the island. Located approximately 180 km from Reykjavik, on the ring road. The population of the village, according to various sources, is 300 - 500 people, and it is the largest settlement for the next 70 km.
Among the attractions are a church on the top of a hill, a couple of monuments and natural beauty. From the church, for example, you can see a beautiful panorama of the surrounding area.

The village has several hotels and guesthouses, a campsite, restaurants and cafes - everything for tourists. There is also the famous ICEWEAR factory for the production of products from Icelandic wool, famous for its excellent qualities. There is a store at the factory (in summer it is open around the clock), which offers a huge assortment of woolen products at the most reasonable prices for Iceland. You can't buy it cheaper. But the prices are still high.

And right there is the famous black beach. The beauty is indescribable in any weather. Just imagine: an icy gray ocean, every minute throwing piles of white foam onto the black shore. You can admire it for hours.

I can’t help but copy-paste: In 1991, the American magazine “Islands” declared this beach as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches on Earth.

2. Troll's Fingers (Rhaenisdrangar) (a point on the map)

Four black basalt pillars rising majestically from the Atlantic Ocean. The spectacle is quite unusual. The rocks really resemble gigantic fingers, or rather the whole hand, sticking out of the water.
Local legends claim that the huge boulders were once trolls. According to legend, they tried to pull the ship onto land, but were so carried away by the process that they did not have time to return to the cave before sunrise and turned into black stone.

3. Reynisdrangar rocks and Reynisfjara beach
(a point on the map)

We got here only thanks to a successful hitchhiking. It's a long walk on foot, about 5 kilometers from the highway, and from the nearest settlement (Vika) to the desired turn there is no low beam either. So, no matter how it sounds, in order to admire the basalt rocks on the ocean shore you need a car.
At the entrance to the cliff there is a large parking lot and a cafe. But we are not particularly interested in it. Columnar basalt is our goal.

Waves and winds have created here fanciful columns and grottoes, decorated with natural ornaments. Their walls are made of individual stone pillars, and the ceiling is decorated with a scaly pattern. Can't stop looking at it.

4. Cape Dyrhólaey.(a point on the map)

Another attraction of Vik is a 120-meter cape ending in beautiful arches. This cape, by the way, is considered the southernmost point of continental Iceland.

Let's move closer.

It offers stunning views of the mountains, coastal valleys, the Atlantic Ocean and the endless black beaches of Iceland's south coast.

The combination of colors is mesmerizing.

Natural arches and turrets were formed thanks to the work of the sea and wind.
Over the centuries, water has eroded cliffs of 100-meter-high volcanic lava created by an underwater eruption. Cliffs rise in the middle of a black sandy wasteland, and isolated groups run into the ocean.

Cape Dyrholaey is also famous for its puffins. Here you can observe them in close proximity, without climbing the rocks. The cape is a nature reserve and in the spring, during the bird nesting season (from mid-May to June 23), the cape is closed.

This is Vic, this is his surroundings.
Even though this part of Iceland is wet and rainy for most of the year, gorgeous scenery is guaranteed, and if the day is sunny, it will be simply fantastic.

This beach is unlikely to attract lovers of sun treatments and tropical heat. Both are absent here at all, but there are magical scatterings of black sand that give the coastal strip a mysterious and “alien” quality. Therefore, Black Beach will certainly be on the list of interests of those who love everything unusual.

As was said, you won’t find sun, warmth and friendliness on Black Beach, because it is located in Iceland, whose harsh climate is not conducive to summer pranks and beach joys. Kilometers of cold, windy coast, pierced by damp winds, are covered with mournful black, inhospitable sand.

Vik Beach, as the locals dubbed it for its proximity to the village of the same name, is located in the south of Iceland and stretches for 5 kilometers along the ocean coastline. It can be called perfectly clean, because besides sand there is nothing here - no pebbles, no specks, or other foreign impurities familiar to the shore. Only volcanic lava, ground into fine sand, covered the earth thousands of years ago.

Every day, salty sea water, air and wind made cracks in the frozen layer of magma, split it into pieces, mercilessly crushed and ground until billions of tiny particles were obtained.

Vik Beach cannot be called picturesque or beautiful in the usual sense of the word. It is more suitable for ominous paintings, but despite everything, its vastness is mesmerizing. To complete the landscape, nature added here mysterious stone boulders of various shapes, which were carelessly scattered along the shore. According to Icelandic legends, the stones are former trolls who did not have time to hide from the sunrise, which, as is known, turns trolls into stone. And so the poor fellows froze, forever remaining beach residents.

In fact, the stones were also formed as a result of an ancient volcanic eruption. These are basalt pieces that water has sharpened into bizarre shapes.

The cloudy weather that prevails over these places most of the year adds an inhospitable mood to the already gloomy appearance. Dense fog, damp wind, constant cold - few people dare to swim here, except perhaps walruses and hardened extreme sports enthusiasts.

But there is no other beach like it, and the deliberate alienation has its own charm. And how horror film directors love him!

The magnificent black sand beach of Reynisfjara (also called Reynisfjara) is located in the south of Iceland, near the tiny village of Vik and Cape Dyrhólaey, the southernmost point of the island.

Due to the specific climate of the country - cold and humid, tourists come to the black beach of Reynisfjara not to sunbathe and swim, but mainly to take a walk and photograph the unearthly beauty of the local nature. This popular attraction of the island is one of the most unusual and picturesque places on the planet, striking the imagination and as if transporting its visitors to another reality.

Characteristics of Reynisfjara Beach

The beach is covered with black sand, the color of which is associated with the nearby volcano. The lava it erupted when it entered the ocean froze at the bottom, turning black. Over the years, water has eroded and crushed these sedimentary formations, turning them into black volcanic sand and carrying them ashore. In addition to sand, there are pebbles and stones on the beach, also in shades close to black.

The length of Reynisfjara beach is about 5 kilometers, and the width reaches several tens of meters.

It is noteworthy that the sand on the beach is very clean and pleasant to walk on. The number of visitors to the beach is generally low even during Iceland's so-called high season.

According to reviews of tourists who have been here, when visiting this beach, a variety of feelings arise - from indescribable admiration to fear and goosebumps.

Due to its unusual appearance, which bears little resemblance to earthly landscapes, Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach often attracts directors who shoot science-fiction films.

Infrastructure

Next to the black beach of Reynisfjara is the village of Vik. It is something like an urban village stretching along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite its very small size, Vik has a fairly developed infrastructure: there are shops, bank branches, restaurants, hotels (two- and three-star) and guesthouses that can be booked in advance.

On the eastern side, the beach is bordered by Mount Reynisfjall with arched caves and basalt columns, which offers stunning views of the surrounding area. The mountain is popular among ornithologists due to the fact that many birds of various species live in its crevices.

The largest cave in the mountain is Hálsanefshellir Cave. It is an unusual and interesting grotto, which you can enter directly from the shore.

Near the coast, in the ocean, you can see the impressive basalt rock pillars of Reynisdrangar, better known as the “Troll's Toes” due to their unusual shape.

From the black beach of Reynisfjara, Cape Dyrholaey, located to the west, is clearly visible. Translated from Icelandic, its name means “mountain with a hole.” Also on the cape you can see the white lighthouse of the same name with a beautiful arch on the shore. It is worth noting that you can drive to the cape by car.

Legends of the Beach

Due to its unusual nature, the beach has become a place surrounded by various myths and legends. The most famous of them is about the black rocks near the shore, which locals nicknamed “Troll’s Fingers.”

According to legend, the trolls who once lived here once decided to steal a ship with sheep on board and were already pulling it towards the shore, but did not make it before sunrise. Its rays began to burn their bodies, and they turned into black boulders. The petrified hand of one of the trolls still sticks out of the water to this day.

Weather and climate features

The island's cold maritime climate results in cool and windy weather for most of the year. The area in which Reynisfjara Beach is located is considered one of the wettest places in Iceland: it is believed that precipitation occurs here 340 days out of 365. Despite the location in the south of the island, the sun, unlike rain and fog, is quite a rare occurrence here.

Throughout the year, the average daily temperature ranges from 0 °C to +15 °C, which can only be found in the warmest months - July and August. Such climatic conditions make it necessary to have warm, windproof and waterproof clothing when planning a trip to the black beach of Reynisfjara.

Panoramic view of Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach in Iceland - Google Maps

How to get to Reynisfjara black beach in Iceland

Reynisfjara Beach is located on the southern coast of the island, about 180 kilometers southeast of Reykjavik and 11 kilometers by road from the coastal village of Vik.

GPS coordinates of Reynisfjara black beach: 63.404271, -19.049165.

Due to the sufficient distance of the beach from the capital of Iceland and major cities, it is most convenient to get to it by rented car.

Video about Reynisfjara beach in Iceland:

Iceland- a country of magnificent landscapes that breathe their northern severity, but at the same time amaze with their expressiveness and incredible beauty. There are many unique places in the country; it is not for nothing that it is included in the top ten. These, for example, include the black beaches of Iceland. We will talk about them.

Where is Black Beach in Iceland?

This unusual beach is located near the southernmost village of Vik in the country, which is only 180 km from the capital of Ireland, Reykjavik. This village is small - only a few hundred inhabitants live here.

The climate, by the way, is very unusual: the village on the coast is considered the wettest place in the country, its climate mainly depends on the Gulf Stream.

Very close to the Black Beach is the southernmost point of the state - Cape Dyrholaey, a beautiful rock that creates arches and juts out strongly into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Why is Black Beach in Iceland called that?

Black Beach, or Reynisfiyara as it is known locally, is a five-kilometer strip of fine black sand stretching across the Atlantic Ocean. If we talk about why the beach is black, then it should be noted that this is the result of volcanoes that have been active for quite a long time. It is known that when a volcano erupted, lava, a hot melt of rock in liquid form, poured out of its crater. Reaching the ocean waters, the lava slowly cooled and remained at the very edge of the coast in the form of a homogeneous rock. The ocean, gradually and over the course of centuries (if not millennia), broke the hard frozen lava into billions of small particles and thus created one of the most beautiful and fantastic beaches on our planet.

Holidays on Black Beach in Iceland

Despite the fact that Reynisfjara Beach is located in the south of Iceland, only the most seasoned people can swim here, since the water in the ocean is very cold. However, this fact does not stop tourists flocking to see the local beauty. Most often it rains here, it is windy, and powerful waves noisily crash into the black strip of the beach. Here and there along the beach and in the water there are black basalt columns that resemble fingers.

These basalt rocks of Reynisdrangar, according to ancient Icelandic legend, are petrified and frozen trolls who intended to sink an Icelandic ship with sheep. However, when morning came, these creatures turned into sullen rocks.

Typically, tourists travel to Black Beach on a package tour that includes the Reynisdrangar Columns, Dyrholaey Cape, Skógafoss Waterfall and Myrdalsjökull Glacier.

The exotic, sometimes alien landscapes of Iceland are mostly mountains and lava fields, glaciers and geysers. But Iceland is an island, and an island should have beaches! And they are there. True, the usual mattress vacation for the average tourist and typical beaches in Iceland are incompatible. There are also familiar yellow beaches on the Icelandic coast, but there are not many of them. And why? There are plenty of yellow beaches everywhere, and Iceland loves to be original. And speaking of all its wonderful unusual features, one cannot help but recall the magnificent black beaches of Vik.

There are quite a few black beaches in Iceland, but to enjoy the most beautiful of them, go to Vik. This is the southernmost settlement of the island, the coast of which is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. Translated from Icelandic, Vík í Mýrdal (Vik, Myrdal commune) means “bay near a swampy valley.” There was no administrative center in the south of Iceland for a long time. In 1883, farmers were given money and were given the right to order their own goods from Great Britain to sell at home. In 1903, a store of doublets imported from Britain was founded in the bay. And by 1905, a village of thirteen houses, inhabited by 80 people, had formed around the store.

Vik is one of the few coastal places in Iceland that does not have a port. The ring road (Hringvegur), the main highway of the country, passes through the village. From Reykjavik 187 kilometers or 2-2.5 hours drive. Today the population of the village is 300 inhabitants. At the same time, tourists have at their disposal two hotels, a hostel and a campsite with a swimming pool.

Photographers from all over the world come here for the extraordinary and imaginative landscapes of the pristine black beach, which stretches for five kilometers and is named one of the ten most beautiful in the world. The origin of the beach, like the islands, is volcanic. Black sand is once solidified lava. It is almost always windy on the coast. The temperature in summer is 10-15 degrees, sometimes it warms up to twenty. In addition, Vik is considered the wettest place in Iceland. But the weather here is changeable and, when the sun does appear, you can watch another miracle - many of the brightest rainbows, which do not happen anywhere else.

Bizarrely shaped rocks growing out of the sea are also the work of volcanoes. But local residents believe in a legend that says that these majestic figures are trolls who did not have time to set sail on their ship before dawn and were turned into stones by the rays of the sun.

And on Vic Beach you can see the “Traveller” sculpture, installed at the same time as the southern twin sculpture in the port of Hull (UK). The statues, whose gazes are turned towards each other, form an imaginary bridge between states connected by maritime trade for more than a thousand years.

To the north-west of the village of Vik is Mount Reynisfiar, which is particularly attractive for those who want to observe a variety of exotic birds. In June-July, the largest colonies of puffins live here, captivating the heart with their funny appearance, reminiscent of either a cheerful clown or a sad Pierrot, and fulmars, who got their name for their gullibility, including towards humans.

In total, Iceland is home to about 350 different species of birds. Many of them, including gulls, great skua, short-billed bean and albatross, are found in the southern part of the island, particularly on the black beaches of Vik.

The fauna of the southern coast, like Iceland as a whole, is not rich. This has its advantages. Neither annoying insects nor dangerous animals will prevent you from enjoying the majestic wildlife. But, if you're lucky, you can see seals, fur seals and even whales!

Vic offers tourists such entertainment as excursions “by land and water” on special boats, sightseeing flights, horse riding, salmon and trout fishing; in winter - snowmobiling, ice climbing and dog sledding on the Myrdalsjökull glacier. You can visit a fish farm and a wool factory.

There is also a large souvenir shop here, where we shop during our trips to Iceland. Here you can buy magnets, souvenir chocolate, puffin statues and many other memorabilia. Many people buy knitted sweaters, although they cost $170.

Near Vik there is the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, where we will go next. You can read more about the tour program and sign up. Join us!

Schedule of upcoming hikes in Iceland, join us!