Suðurnesjabær – Sandgerði

Welcome to Sandgerdi in Suðurnesjabær

Sandgerdi is a friendly fishing town on the western side of the Reykjanes peninsula, a few minutes drive from the Keflavík International Airport – Leifur Eiriksson. The town of Sandgerdi is located on the western side of the Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland, with the Leifur Eiríksson International Airport in a municipality’s boundaries. The west coast faces the open ocean.

Sandgerði is a settlement core on the outside of the Reykjanes peninsula. Sandgerði merged with the municipality of Garður on June 10, 2018 and is now called Suðurnesjabær. Sandgerðisskóli stands by Skólastræti together with the sports center. The school has been in operation since 1938.

The Sigurvon Rescue Squad is the country’s first rescue squad and was established by the Icelandic Accident Prevention Association. Sigurvon operates the lifeboat Hannes Þ. Hafstein and has been responsible for safety and accident prevention to land and sea from Sandgerði since 1928. The Reynir football club was founded on September 15, 1935.

On Statistics Iceland’s website, you can see the population of settlements and municipalities . The population of Suðurnesjabær was 3.588 on January 1st, 2020 and it is the second-largest municipality of Reykjanes Peninsula, after Reykjanesbær.

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. On December 3, 1990, Sandgerdi attained town rights. Inhabitants number of Sandgerdi is close to 1600.

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.

For that occasion, a monument in honour of seamen was inaugurated. The monument, Álög, is made by sculptor Steinunn Þórarinssdóttir, and is to remind us of how small and insignificant human existance can be when dealing with the powerful ocean. There is lots to do in the town of Sandgerdi, among others Bird-watching, golfing, see historical significant places and go swimming. In the northern part of town is Sandgerðistjörn pond, where hundreds of migratory birds gather each spring.

The town’s oldest house, after which the town of Sandgerði was named, stands by the pond. The house was erected in 1883. On the coastline, north and south of Sandgerdi, there are many beautiful spots to visit, and some of them have historical significance.

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