Trolladyngja Mountain

Two things bring people up Trolladyngja: the view and the colour. At 378 metres the mountain stands clear of the lava fields around it, and the ground opens out on every side from the upper slopes. The rock is the other half of it. This is volcanic ground, weathered and altered, and in direct sun the slopes come up in rust, ochre and pale grey against darker lava. Under cloud the same ground reads flat. Trolladyngja is not a single cone but a crater on a fissure vent, so the top is a broken ridge rather than a point.

• No facilities at all. No toilets, no drinking water and no information boards within five kilometres. Bring water with you.
• Come dressed for wind. The lava fields here are open ground with no shelter, and the weather changes fast.
• In low cloud there is nothing to see. The view and the rock colour are the whole point, and both need clear air.
• You will probably be alone. Trolladyngja gets few visitors, and there is nobody on site to ask.

No bus route reaches Trolladyngja, so everyone arrives by car. You park almost at the foot of the mountain: the nearest car park lies about 155 metres away and its surface is gravel. A second gravel car park sits about 1.3 kilometres out. Everything past the car park is on foot, over open volcanic ground with nothing built on it.

Better: a clear, sunny day. Avoid: low cloud and flat grey light.

The reason to climb Trolladyngja is what you can see from it. The lava fields below and the colour in the rock both depend on the light. Direct sun separates the rust and ochre tones from the dark lava. Overcast flattens everything into one grey. Keep this as a flexible item in the plan and go on the day the sky clears.