Djúpalónssandur Beach

This scenic beach features historic fishing sites, unique rock formations, and strength-testing stones, along with a haunting cave and a shipwreck.

Close to Arnarstapi is Djúpalónssandur Beach. Meaning Deep Lagoon’s Sand, the beach was once the home to about sixty fishing boats. Despite the name, the beach is by a relatively shallow and sandy bay, which made it easy to land a ship.

The nearby creek Dritvík was also a fishing station. It is believed that men started sailing from Dritvík sometime in the 16th century, and at most, about 600-700 men fished from there.

Gatklettur (Holey-Rock – and not to be confused with the one in Arnarstapi) is in Djúpalónssandur and by it is a beautiful little pond called Svörtulón. Fishermen believed the beach was haunted, and there’s even a cave called Draugahellir or Ghost Cave. Another interesting site is Tröllakirkja, Troll Church.

On the beach are four lifting stones used to test the strength of those who wanted to become fishermen. Amlóði (sluggard) is the lightest one at 23 kg. Second is hálfdrættingur (half the man) at 54 kg, then there’s hálfsterkur (half the strength) at 100 kg, and the fullsterkur (fully strong) at 154 kg. To be considered good enough to work on the boats, you would have to be able to lift hálfsterkur to hip height.

The Grimsby fishing trawler Epine (GY7) remains on the beach. It was wrecked on March 13, 1948.