Gljúfrabúi: the one next to Seljalandsfoss

Six hundred metres north of Seljalandsfoss, along the base of the same cliff, a stream comes out of a narrow crack in the rock. Walk into the crack — through the water, there is no dry route — and forty metres in the cleft opens into a chamber with a waterfall dropping into it and a circle of sky overhead.

That is Gljúfrabúi, and it is the best thing on the South Coast that most people drive past. It is free, there is no gate, and the reason it stays quiet is that from the car park it looks like a rock face.

Why nobody goes

Seljalandsfoss is enormous, obvious and directly in front of you when you park. Gljúfrabúi is a crack in a cliff ten minutes’ walk away with a small sign. Coach passengers get thirty or forty minutes, spend twenty-five walking the path behind Seljalandsfoss, and never look north.

The name means dweller in the gorge, which is exactly right: the fall is about forty metres and you cannot see any of it from outside.

Getting in, honestly

You wade. The stream running out of the cleft is ankle-deep in normal conditions and there are boulders placed to step on, but they are wet and rounded and people go in over the boot regularly. Waterproof walking boots are the difference between fine and miserable for the rest of the day.

Inside, the chamber holds a permanent mist and you will be damp within a minute. Cameras and phone lenses fog and spot immediately — bring a cloth, and expect to wipe between every shot. There is a large boulder in the middle that everyone climbs for the photograph and it is slick.

After heavy rain or spring melt the stream rises and the crossing stops being a paddle. If the water is running fast and brown, do not do it: the cleft is narrow and there is nowhere to go.

What it costs

Nothing. There is no admission to Gljúfrabúi. The Seljalandsfoss car park charges a parking fee — around 900 krónur for a car — and that covers the whole site including the walk north.

Doing both in one stop

It is tight but it works. From the car park: walk the loop behind Seljalandsfoss first, because you will already be wet and it makes no difference afterwards, then straight north along the cliff path. Fifteen minutes for Seljalandsfoss, ten in and out of Gljúfrabúi, five walking. Thirty minutes, and you have seen both.

If your driver says forty minutes, you have enough. If they say twenty-five, do Gljúfrabúi and skip the path behind Seljalandsfoss — the cleft is the rarer thing, and the view from behind a waterfall is mostly the back of a waterfall.

Which tours actually stop here

Gljúfrabúi appears in the agenda of a small minority of South Coast tours, and those are the ones to prefer if this matters to you.

EastWest’s South Coast day tour in a small group is ten hours from €152 and names it; the same operator runs it in Spanish at €152. Elysia Tours’ South Coast to Vík is eleven hours from €250.

Every other South Coast tour stops at Seljalandsfoss, which means you can walk to Gljúfrabúi yourself in the time you are given. Nothing stops you. The only question is whether you know it is there — which is the entire reason for this page.

Our honest take

Go. It is ten minutes, it is free, and it is the only place on the South Coast where you will stand somewhere most visitors never see, on a day otherwise spent in a queue behind a coach.

Wear boots you do not mind soaking. Put the phone away for the first minute and look up at the circle of sky — the photographs never work anyway, and the standing there does.

If you are choosing a tour and want it written into the itinerary rather than walked to on your own initiative, take EastWest’s small group at €152.