Þrístapar

The exhibit here is text. A run of information plaques covers the killings at Illugastaðir, the trial, the execution of 1830 and the later abolition of the death penalty in Iceland. Walk up the hillock and you stand on the execution site, marked by two stakes. A QR code on site leads to more material on the case.

Hannah Kent's novel Burial Rites is built on the same events, told from the side of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland. Readers of it recognise every name on the plaques. Without an interest in the history there is little to hold you here — the hillocks are grass, and the story is the whole of it.

• Toilet: there is one on site and it is not free — around 300 ISK, payable by card.
• Everything is outdoors: the plaques stand in the open, on and around the hillock. Bring a windproof jacket.
• Photograph the QR code: it leads to further material on the case, which you can read later.
• Read first if you can: Hannah Kent's Burial Rites is based on these events and gives the plaques context.
• Not a viewpoint: with no interest in the history, there is little here beyond the hillocks and the toilet block.

Þrístapar is reached by car. The site lies in Húnavatnshreppur, in Northwest Iceland, and has its own car park. From there the visit is on foot: the plaques are read along the way, and the execution site with its two stakes is up the hillock. There is no building to go into, so the walk is the visit.

Better: in daylight, with enough time to read every plaque.

Avoid: the dark hours of midwinter.

The site is open at all hours, but the whole visit consists of reading outdoors. How much daylight you have decides how much you take away from the stop.