Suðurnesjabær – Garður

Welcome to Garður in Suðurnesjabær – About the Park

Garður is a friendly town on the western side of the Reykjanes peninsula, a few minutes drive from the Keflavík International Airport – Leifur Eiriksson.  The west coast faces the open ocean.

Garður is a settlement core on the outside of the Reykjanes peninsula. Garður merged with the municipality of Sandgerði on June 10, 2018 and is now called Suðurnesjabær. The coast line is relatively low and sandy, but dangerous reefs lie just off the coast. The Midnesheidi moor rises up from the grown lowland by the coast.

The community began establishing itself around the turn of the century when motorboats were being introduced for fishing in Iceland. Today, Sandgerdi is one of the country’s major fishing communitites. Rich fishing-grounds are found just off the coast of Sandgerdi, and in recent years good harbour facilities have been installed in Sandgerdi. In 1986 the community celebrated its 100th anniversary.

The older lighthouse in Garðskagi was constructed 1897 and the second one in 1944 but a landmark had been there since 1847 and later a lamp was added to the landmark at 1884. The old lighthouse was used as a bird observatory on behalf of Natural History foundation from 1962 to 1978. The old Lighthouse is often an inspiration in both art and photography. The majestic Garðskagaviti, designed by Axel Sveinsson engineer, was built in 1944 to replace older Garðskagaviti that was both too low and vulnerable to land infringement. At Garðskagi the lighthouse keeper had permanent residence and remained so until 1979. The lighthouse keepers house still stands, built in 1933 to a design by architect Einar Erlendsson. Byggðasafn Garðskaga or The Municipal Museum in Garður operates in the outbuildings of the lighthouse keeper estate. Garðskagi lighthouse is open in good weather in order to enter inside you must first go to the Museum and talk to the director of The Municipal Museum in Garður.

By Hafurbjarnastaðir, between Gardur and Sandgerdi, there are graves from pre-christian times, which were discovered in 1947. The graves are considered a very important discovery, and remains from one of the graves are now on display at the National Museum of Iceland. In this same area there is a good 9-hole golfcourse.

Check out The Sudurnes Science and Learning Center, local restaurants and art galleries. There are lots of places to visit, for example The Sudurnes Science and Learning Center. It´s a museum with two exhibitions, a Nature Exhibition and Attraction of the Poles exhibition.

There is a lot to see on the route south to Stafnes. Approximately 6 km from Sandgerdi is the church of Hvalneskirkja. The church was built out of stone in 1887, and one of Iceland’s most cherished poets, Hallgrímur Pétursson, served there as a priest for a number of years. Inside the church is the tombstone of Pétursson’s daughter, Steinunn. The tombstone was found in a walling and is thought to have been made by the poet himself.

Activity Iceland

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The Reykjanes peninsula has many interesting and beautiful places to explore, magical nature consisting of lava fields, a black sand beach, hot mud spring area and the famous bridge between two continents.

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– Reykjanesviti, is a lighthouse which was built in 1908 and the centre piece to some of the most active geothermal hotspot activities found in Iceland.

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– Gunnuhver, which is the largest hot mud spring in Iceland with a crater of 20 metres in circumference. There are two ramps that offer a great view of Gunnuhver and the surrounding geo-systems of steam vents and hot springs.

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– Karlinn (The Old Man) is a 50m high rock formation that has been widowed from his wife; another rock formation named, Kerlingin (The Old Woman) by weather and wind as she used to stand by his side, but has now been washed away.

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– Brennisteinfjöll (The Sulphur Mountains) where you can explore numerous caves, craters and lava fields which were formed from active volcanoes upon Icelandic settlement and the 19th century.

Blue Lagoon