The Troll Seat

Despite the name, the Troll Seat is not a rock perched on a cliff. Naustahvilft is a half-bowl notch cut into the flat-topped mountain that wraps around Ísafjörður, a hanging valley left behind when the glacier melted at the end of the last ice age. Its smooth, curved walls really do look like a giant chair facing the town. Icelandic folklore explains it differently: a troll hurrying home before sunrise stopped to rest her aching feet, and her weight pressed the hollow into the mountain. Trolls turn to stone in daylight, so the seat is what she left behind. The hike is short but steep, climbing roughly 170 metres in a relentless pull, so it is harder than the distance suggests. It suits reasonably fit walkers in good footwear rather than "most" visitors. The reward at the top is a direct view down over Ísafjörður and out along the fjord.