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Haunted places in Iceland
What are the most haunted places in Iceland? The best-known is Gunnuhver.
Iceland has one of the richest ghost traditions in Europe. Its folk tales, collected by Jón Árnason in the 19th century, are full of draugar – the walking dead – and of clever priests who outwit them. One of the most famous is set at Gunnuhver, a boiling mud pool on the Reykjanes Peninsula, where the ghost of a poor woman called Gunna was said to have been lured into the steaming spring with a ball of yarn.
- 1 haunting
- 3 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Iceland
The ghost lore of Iceland
Another classic is the Deacon of Myrká, the tale of a dead man who rides through a winter night to fetch his sweetheart, calling her name. Belief in the hidden people (huldufólk) and respect for places linked to them remain part of modern Icelandic life, and stories of ghosts in old farmhouses, hotels and lighthouses are common.
Visitors meet Iceland’s ghosts at Gunnuhver’s boardwalks, in folklore museums and on guided walks.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Myrká, Eyjafjörður
The northern farm and church at the heart of the Deacon of Myrká, one of Iceland’s best-known ghost stories.
- Strandir, Westfjords
The remote coast associated with Iceland’s 17th-century sorcery trials, remembered at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavík.
- Reykjavík Centrum Hotel
A city-centre hotel where, according to local stories, a Viking ghost appeared during construction in 2001.
Timeline
- Early 18th centuryGunna and the cooking pot Gunnuhver
According to the folk tale, Gunna curses her landlord after he takes her pot for unpaid rent; after both their deaths her ghost is said to haunt the district until a priest lures it into the spring.
- 1752–1757Geothermal fields described Gunnuhver
Eggert Ólafsson’s survey journey across Iceland produces some of the first written descriptions of the peninsula’s geothermal areas.
- 15 September 2014The mud geysers erupt Gunnuhver
A sharp increase in activity sends mud seven to ten metres into the air near Gunnuhver, damaging infrastructure and closing the site.
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