Iceland: Dramatic Viking Movie Set and Black Sand Dune Beach

Viking Cafe

Viking Village Panorama

Approach to Viking Movie Set

Viking Long House

Viking Turf Houses

Viking Catapult

Viking Hut with Horns

Black Sand Dunes and Misty Vestrahorn Mountain

Richard and Dunes for Scale

Dune Covered with Green Grass

Sideswept Dune

Windswept Dunes

Single Blade of Grass in Black Volcanic Sand

Departure on Stokksnes Exit Road

Mist Flowing Down Mountain

Mist Flowing Over Mountain

Descriptive Map of Vestrahorn and Stokksnes Area

Viking Cafe Map of Area

An especially great place for photography in southeastern Iceland is Vestrahorn Mountain.  The 8-10 million year old gabbro and granophyre rocks are the remains of an ancient magma chamber of an extinct volcano.  To get to it, drive on Ring Road 1 about one hour east of Jokulsarlon and exit to Stokksnes (an old World War II NATO radar base).  The exit is just before the tunnel entrance east of Hofn.  Drive about 3 miles on the dirt road until you reach the remote family-owned Viking Café and pay a small entrance fee. 

A short hike through this stunning landscape leads to a former Viking movie set.  This Viking village was initially planned to be revived in 2017 to film the movie “Vikingr” by Universal Studios.  The movie is about epic Viking sagas by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur.   An initial article about the movie in October 2014 is at:  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-iceland-viking-movie-baltasar-kormakur-20141008-story.html   In a follow-up article dated September 2016 Kormakur says that he expected to start work and filming of the Viking movie in 2017:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/baltasar-kormakur-returning-iceland-oath-926795   An update in 2019 said that Vikingr is still under development by Universal Pictures.  

UPDATE:  In October 2019 it was announced that Baltasar Kormakur will begin production in 2020 on the supernatural volcano drama “Katla” for Netflix.  This eight part series “begins one year after the violent eruption of the subglacial volcano Katla….Mysterious elements that have been deeply frozen into the glacier from prehistoric times start to emerge from the melting ice and cause consequences that no one could have ever foreseen.”  Exciting!  Read more at:  https://grapevine.is/news/2019/10/10/baltasar-kormakur-making-supernatural-volcano-drama-series-for-netflix/

NEW UPDATE April/May 2020:  Filming for Katla will begin as soon as possible in Vik, Iceland.  The town is already being prepped for filiming by shoveling ash around buildings to similate fallout from the eruption.  Read more at:  https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/how-icelandic-director-baltasar-kormakur-lives-in-quarantine.html  and https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/culture_and_living/2020/04/24/vik_i_myrdal_covered_in_volcanic_ash/  Filming in progress:  https://www.icelandreview.com/culture/baltasar-resumes-filming-of-supernatural-volcano-drama/ . 

Continuing your exploration, drive a very short distance in the other direction from the Viking Village to the sea to photograph the black volcanic sand dunes and mist-covered mountains.  The dunes are shaped by the wind and topography.  This place is stunning and embodies the wildness and drama of the Icelandic landscape – the owners consider it “Heaven on Earth”!