Surtshellir Cave, Iceland

The cave, or rather the cave system, of Sursthellir is located in the center west Iceland, in the middle of the great lava field of Hallmundarhraun . The lava flow is about 3000 years old and measures 52 km long with an area of 252 km2.

The cave is a large lava tube of more than 2 kilometers long with several entrances of the type of that in the Canary Islands is called "jameos", that is, effect of the subsidence of the vault that give access to the gallery.

From kilometers before arriving to the cave, the scenery is absolutely volcanic, and we can see lava domes, corded lava flows, subsidence wells and a broad sample of volcanic forms. Vegetation virtually disappears and only reddish or black rocks define a landscape that is dominated by cold wind and snow, even at the end of June.

The two main entrances to the cave are named Sursthellir and Stephanhellir.

Access is not complicated, as a dirt track in quite good condition brings us up to the vicinity of Sursthellir. Following the road 508 and close to Strutur High, one takes road 578. The track descends to the valley of the river whose broad and abundant water occupies the part of the valley not covered by the lava field.

After seven kilometers, we have a small esplanade where you can park and where there is a panel with some explanations and with a map of the cave.

We enter to the cave by Sursthellir entrance, a collapse of the vault (as mentioned above) that in consequence allows advancing in two directions of the gallery. Due to time constraints (there is a lot to see in Iceland) we took the north gallery. At the time that I was, the snow covered the wide mouth and meandered in the gallery approximately twenty meters.

Descends over the chaos of blocks caused subsidence of the vault, we continue by a zone with the floor covered with medium size blocks, for about fifty meters in length. From here on, the cave is shows its full dimensions: A magnificent tunnel of about 10 meters high and wide, with cleared and flat ground and some blocks fallen from the vault from time to time.

Walls show the traces of the successive levels of lava circulating through the tunnel until its abandonment, in the form of horizontal marks adhered to the sides of the tunnel.

The soil of the gallery shows areas of corded lava, testimony of the last movement of lava through the tunnel.

The gallery continues until a second vault collapse, not usable for access or exit the cave (except that you use caving equipment), and beyond up to a third and fourth vault collapses by which you can exit.

Stephanshellir cave starts here, and morphologically is part od the same cave system.

We regret not having time for exploring the full system, but other Iceland marvels wait for us.