Helgustaðir Mine

Calcite is the whole point of a visit. Crystals lie on the ground outside the cave mouth, so much of what people come to see is out in daylight rather than underground. There is information on site explaining what was dug here and what it was used for. Inside, the tunnel is wet and the ceiling drops in places. It does not run through: you turn back at the end and walk out by the entrance you came in by. The view from the mine is good in its own right. The workings are in two parts, an upper mine and a lower one.

• Two entrances. The site has an upper mine and a lower one. A visitor in 2018 found the upper entrance closed and went in by the lower one.
• Finding the way in. The entrance is the hard part of the visit. It takes some looking for.
• Wet inside. The mine floor is wet. Wear boots you do not mind soaking.
• The tunnel ends. It does not run through, so you come back out by the entrance you used.

The mine sits on the north shore of Eskifjörður, reached by Route 954 (Helgustaðavegur), the gravel road running east out of Eskifjörður town toward Vöðlavík. There's no bus — it's a self-drive spot. Drive slowly, park by the marker, and scramble up the short path to the openings. The shore road is passable in a normal car only in summer, so plan it for the drier months.

Helgustaðir Mine has been a nature reserve since 1975, and the reserve covers 0.9 hectares. Removing crystals and tampering with the rock formations is forbidden. It happens anyway. Some visitors fill their backpacks with samples, and the damage has grown as visitor numbers have grown. Since 2010 the reserve has been on the Environment Agency of Iceland's red list of areas likely to lose their protected status. Leave what you find where it lies, loose pieces on the ground included.