Iceland’s Largest Mud Pool: Gunnuhver Geothermal Fields

The Reykjanes Peninsula is where most people enter the country of Iceland through Keflavík International Airport. This Southern Peninsula also holds the country’s most popular attraction: The Blue Lagoon. Don’t stop there – see many more places of interest in the region, including Iceland’s largest geothermal mud pool: Gunnuhver.

The massive boiling pot measures 65 feet across with a temperature of 570˚F emitting an endless thick cloud of stinking sulfuric steam. Not only is it Iceland’s largest geothermal site, being so close to the ocean it is also the only hot spring made up solely of seawater.

In the 1930s a family chose this warm ground to live on to cultivate a garden. The Hoyer’s grew flowers and made flowerpots using clay baked in a geothermal oven. Luckily, a job offer took them elsewhere – because their abode would not stand the test of time. You can still see the foundation of their house and workshop.

Sitting on top of the Mid-Atlantic rift, the area is extremely volcanic and in 2006 the hot pool expanded aggressively, gobbling up ground and the very viewing platform tourists were used to snap pictures from. The site was closed down for years, but is now reopened – you can spot the old boardwalk when the steam blows in a certain direction.

The ground around this site is boldly colored in a infernal red, almost blood like. A story coincides with this epic pool, also known as Gunna Hot Spring and named for a 400 year old ghost. So it goes, Gudrun was a poor woman (potentially a witch) who couldn’t afford the pay her rent. Her landlord was a wealthy lawyer by the name of Vilhjalmur Jonsson and decided to take her only possession, a cooking pot, as payment. Furious, she decided to starve herself until she died. When she was taken off to be buried, the men noticed all of the sudden – the coffin felt light as air. When they began to dig her grave a chilling whisper spread throughout the air: No need deep to dig, no plans long to lie. The next day the landlord was found dead – blue with broken bones. Gunna had began her revenge, and soon the whole Reykjanes Peninsula was feeling her wrath! Vilhjalmur’s wife was the second to die, then others around became crazy and mysteriously died after seeing Gunna. All of this continued until a sorcerer priest came to end the madness. He took a ball of yarn, Gunna was given the loose end and pushed into the hot spring. Some say they saw her fall down into the abyss, others say she hangs on its edge – for all of eternity.

Nearby:

+Reykjanes Lighthouse is the oldest structure of its kind in the country is just a mile away, seen from Gunna

+Valahnúkamöl is an interesting rock formation and rugged coast