As we follow the coastline of Snæfellsnes peninsula toward its westernmost point, we reach Svörtuloft (Black Sky) where we find a 4-kilometer long cliff and a wonderful lighthouse. It’s a slow, bumpy ride over the gravel road to get to this spot, but it’s worth the ride!
The lighthouse at Svörtuloft strikes a strong figure as its 12.8m height towers over the cliffs and its yellow-orange hue stands against the blue of the sky. The lighthouse was brought into use in 1931, as sailing by this western tip of Iceland has always been rather daunting. Over the centuries many ships have stranded here, which usually resulted in the ship’s hull being broken into piece on the sharp, black lava cliffs.
The cliffs upon which the lighthouse is built present their origin in the black foundation: lava. Grasses and mosses find fertile ground here and are not easily discouraged by the stormy weather and fearsome seasons, which gives a much softer feeling to the landscape. Do not be fooled, as the edges of the lava are sharp and hard, which also makes for rather uneven footing.
Luckily, Iceland provides a welcoming feeling to all tourists and easy trails and even a picnic area are available to get around the lighthouse here at Svörtuloft. Thanks to this German traveler for posing in this image.
Construction of any lighthouse puts a premium on sturdiness, as the elements will wreak havoc with any point of weakness. For this reason, the windows in Svörtuloftaviti lighthouse are small and set strong in their concrete surroundings.
In all, it was wonderful to visit this location, and it definitely made me look back as we were getting ready to leave. That allowed me to capture the Sun at just the appropriate location to light up this tower of strength, which, in turn, lights up to warn travelers of the dangers that are on its shores.
After this, our fourth stop of this day of arriving on the Snæfellsnes peninsula from Reykjavik, it was time to go in the direction of Hellissandur to find our lodging and a chance of dinner. Not a bad way to start our tour!
The images in this post are taken with my iPhone 13 Pro Max and Canon EOS EOS R5 using a Canon RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens. First level processing of the images was done using Skylum’s Luminar AI software; for these images, I created a template based on the Backlit Clouds template that is part of the Overcast collection of templates. Touch up processing was done in Photoshop.
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