Vestrahorn Mountain & the Viking Village

Vestrahorn Mountain on Stokksnes Peninusla is one of, if not the most photographed mountain in Iceland. Its magnificent sharp peaks, light color and beautiful location by a black sand beach in South East Iceland, make it a stunning photo op. As an added bonus there is a pretty cool Viking Village located at the bottom of Vestrahorn Mountain. A village that was created as a movie set for a movie that was never made.

I went for a short visit to Vestrahorn Mountain and the Viking village one evening last summer. It was a rather short visit and I don’t really feel like I managed to explore the area well enough. But I still want to tell you about my experience in this beautiful place.

My traveling partners and I were coming from the Eastfjords where we visited Stuðlagil, Seyðisfjörður, Borgarfjörður Eystri, Klifbrekkufossar in Mjóifjörður Fjord and more. The plan was to stay the night at Höfn before we continued our drive to Reykjavík.

We arrived at Vestrahorn pretty late in the day or around 6:30pm. The lighting conditions may not have been optimal but still worth the stop. You could see on all the footsteps in the black sand that there had been plenty of people there during the day. But when we arrived, there were only a few other people around. Which I always see as a bonus.

Because of our timing we didn’t stay very long or about an hour and a half. Just long enough to explore the viking village and get some shots of Vestrahorn Mountain from a few different angles.

Viewing Points at Vestrahorn

At high tide the water from the ocean stretches over the sands below the mountain, forming a very shallow lagoon called Kirkjusandur. On a calm day, this lagoon offers great reflections of the mountain. Which enables you to get awesome reflection shots of Vestrahorn. But as you may or may not know, calm days are pretty rare in Iceland. It’s almost always windy here. It just varies how strong the wind is 😅 But it sure happens once in a while and you might get lucky when you visit.

Even though you can’t take the perfect reflection shot, it’s very cool to take a picture or a video of someone walking in the shallow lagoon towards the mountain. As the water is very shallow you can do this without getting your feet wet (at least if they’re somewhat waterproof) but it looks like you’re walking on water.

Hiking Trails at Vestrahorn Mountain

There are a few marked hiking trails in the area which give you a chance to enjoy the beauty of nature at Vestrahorn even better and see the mountain from different angles. 

The Red Trail

The red trail that takes you around the western part of the black sands. A part of this trail takes you along the rocky edge of the Atlantic Coast where you’ll find vibrant birdlife, seals lurking out at sea and Stokksnes Lighthouse.

The Yellow Trail

The yellow one takes you around the eastern part of the black sands. You’ll walk along the black sand beach, then along the bottom of Vestrahorn and end at the Viking Village.

The Blue Trail

This one isn’t for everybody at least if the plan is to climb Vestrahorn. You can hike around Hvammshorn to Hvammsfjara which is another beautiful black sand beach. To finish the whole blue trail you need to be a climber. Please get further information about this trail at the Viking Café.

As I didn’t have time for hiking this time around, I didn’t try out any of these trails. If you have a tight schedule like I did, you sure can get plenty out of a short stop as I did. But I would have loved to have had time for some hiking in the area and plan to revisit to do exactly that.

The Viking Village at Vestrahorn Mountain

As I mentioned in the beginning, this cool little Viking Village was built as a movie set. But even though the film, the village was originally built for, was never made, the village has been used as a filming location for Netflix’s TV series, The Witcher. I also heard some place that it was used for a Bollywood movie but I haven’t been able to confirm that information.

This Viking Village isn’t big and doesn’t take a long time to explore. I’m not sure if I would drive a long detour to see it alone but as a combination with Vestrahorn Mountain it’s definitely worth a visit.

What a location for a village like this. I don’t have a hard time understanding why this location was chosen for it. Simply a stunning location.

You Need to Pay an Entrance Fee at the Viking café 

Vestrahorn Mountain stands on private land and is one of very few sites in Iceland where you need to pay an entrance fee. At the Viking Café you pay this entrance and get a ticket with a QR code. Then you scan the code at the gate to get access to the beach and the Viking Village. When this is written the entrance fee is 1.000 ISK.

At the Viking Café you can also buy some refreshments like coffee, pastries, sandwiches and waffles. I’ve heard good things about their offerings at the café but I didn’t get a chance to try anything myself. My travel partners and I were going to dinner in Höfn right after our visit so eating there didn’t fit into our schedule.

The Viking Café also offers some accommodations in the form of small rooms and a camping site. Apparently they also offer Horse Riding Tours but I didn’t find anything more about it online. I guess it’s best to contact them directly if you’re interested in taking one of those.

You can find Viking Café’s homepage here.

How to Get to Vestrahorn Mountain

The easiest way to get to Vestrahorn Mountain is to drive there yourself. It’s a long drive from Reykjavík or about 465 km/289 mi. On the other hand it’s a perfect detour when driving the Ring Road. It’s only about 5 km/3 mi drive from the Ring Road to the Viking Café.

When traveling east, you drive about 7 km/4.3 mi after you pass Höfn. Then you turn right onto an unmarked gravel road that takes you to the Viking Café.

By unmarked I mean there is no number on this road. I honestly don’t remember if there was a sign that said “Vestrahorn”, “Stokksnes”, “Viking Café” or something similar. There must have been though. I just can’t remember.

If you reach a tunnel that takes you through the mountain you have missed your turn and have to turn around!

When traveling west, you turn to the left onto the gravel road shortly after you drive out of the tunnel.

Well, that’s it for now. If you liked this post and think some of your friends might be interested in reading it too, please help me spread the word. I’d really appreciate it if you’d share it on social media or just send it directly to a friend.

Until next time!