Skalanes (Skálanes) Walk
Skalanes (Skálanes) Walk
Duration: 2-3 hours. Difficulty: easy level walks on a dirt track. Interest: coastal and mountain views, birds and nature Start/End: Skalanes is 19km east of Seydisfjordur and can be reached on road 952, which continues from Seydisfjorður along the south shore of the fjord. Park at Austdalur where the road turns to a jeep track. It is not recommended to continue the drive all the way to Skalanes, as it involves a tricky river crossing.
From the car parking area at Austdalur, follow the jeep track on foot, taking various diversions from it on a marked path, with footbridges over the rivers. It will take you around 1.5 hours on the 4.5km trail to reach Skalanes.
The remote farm of Skálanes is a private 1250 hectare nature reserve and field study station, which has worked with students from Scottish universities.
The owner has restored the once-abandoned farmstead into a research facility for amateur botanists, ecologists, birdwatchers and archaeologists. Visitors are asked to stay on the marked paths to avoid disturbing the birds.
About 100,000 birds of 40 species breed around Skalanes, among them puffin, black-tailed godwit, red-necked phalarope, golden plover, Merlin, and common eider. Whales and seals can sometimes be spotted offshore. Remains from the settlement era have been found at Skálanes.
From the research centre, a path continues in an easterly direction to the edge of Skalanes cliff, where puffins can be observed perched on the cliff edge and flying to and from during the breeding season.
At the center, sumptuous eiderdown duvets are for sale, using down harvested from the guesthouse's own eider nests. For more information please contact the center at info@skalanes.com
Please note there are no facilities at Skalanes Research, including no access to toilets.