Our tour of the incredibly attractive Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Iceland concluded at the village of Arnarstapi.
Having just come from another village, Hellnar, we’d anticipated something similar in size but Arnarstapi was a lot larger, containing more buildings, and a lot more tourists. In the summer months it’s tourism that thrives here now because of the landscape, although in the past Arnarstapi was an important fishing port and was run by first Norway then Denmark for their own interests. The industrial revolution saw investment in the countryside areas of Iceland dwindle and the village shrunk in size and importance.
If you’re visiting Arnarstapi then it’s the coastal walk you’ll want to be taking, enjoying the sights and some of the natural wonders on view. If you like rock formations then you are going to find some fine ones. There is also an extensive lava field here, ejected from the dominating form of the Snæfellsjökull volcano and glacier on the peninsula, but our tour stuck to the coastline.
And, of course, with this being Iceland, you’re never short of stunning views to the landscape not just where you’re standing but for miles around. We got lucky on our visit that it was bright and, for us, warm. In fact, we were walking around in t-shirts on the rocky cliffs, although we were in the minority.
The basalt columns and cliffs around Arnarstapi are home to lots of birdlife. Noisy birdlife, when we were there. You can probably expect to see kittiwakes, gulls, and Arctic terns, depending on the time of year you visit.
There are a few stand-out natural rock formations among all the others. The first of those was a stone bridge over an eroded section, across which many people were walking and posing for photos. Our guide kept us moving past it, no doubt a little concerned that accidents upon it would reflect badly on the tour as a whole.
Further along the coastal walk at Arnarstapi was the more impressive and more photographed Gatklettur, a stone arch more akin to those you might find at Lulworth Cove or Cabo San Lucas (and probably others, but those are the ones we’ve seen so far).
As our circular walk around the Arnarstapi coastline came to an end and we approached the parking lot for our bus we came upon the last landmark. The sculpture of stones on a slight rise represented Bárður Snæfellsás, a half-man, half-ogre who lived in this part of Iceland in the ninth century according to a fourteenth century saga.
Absolutely beautiful landscape views is the staple of any visit to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, and Arnarstapi did not disappoint, but a cruise excursion could only give the merest highlights of all there is to see. Furthermore, because of the number of people on the tour and the narrow, uneven walk along the coastline it wasn’t always possible to hear the guide explaining some aspect of the saga histories or the wildlife or the formations. Not helped when I wander off to snap some photos, either. A visit to Arnarstapi is definitely recommended if you’re visiting Iceland.
In the next part of this 2022 Sky Princess Norway and Iceland cruise travelogue series we’ll return to Grundarfjörður ahead of our departure overnight to Iceland’s capital, the last port of call on this cruise.