There is a visitor trail through Gömlutún, which is at the bottom of Skaftafellsheiði. Five interpretation signs have been installed there.  You can learn about the history of the area and how life was in Öræfi as welll as the effect of glacial rivers and volcanic eruptions on the history of living in Öræfi.

People have lived at Skaftafell since the Settlement of Iceland. Fields and meadows were on the lowland and the stately farmhouse stood at the foot of the hill. Eruptions and glacial floods stuck and by the late 18th century all the land below the hill was buried in sand. The nearby powerful river, Skeiðará, could flood suddenly. People retreated with their farms and livestock, eventually all habitations were on high ground.

In the 18th century the Skaftafell farm was said to be much larger than other farms, with a long history stretching back to the 11th century. The farm had been frequently rebuilt using readily available driftwood.

Vegetated land below the farm had almost vanished by around 1800. An 1834 appraisal describes living quarters, pantry, hallway, kitchen, cowshed and barn. The house was large and stately, with panelled living quarters and 3-4 m ceiling height. In the living area were four beds, probably box-beds. 

Like the low-lying fields and meadows, the farm buildings were overtaken by nature. Bjarni Jónsson (1769-1833) and his wife Guðný Þorsteinsdóttir (1781-1851) were last to live here. Their son Þorsteinn took over the farm and moved to live at Bölti in 1850. The old farm was pulled down and the timber and stones were used in the new house. Other descendants of Bjarni and Guðný established farms at Hæðir and Sel, higher on the hillside.

At Gömlutún many old stream beds can be seen. Some 18th century letters record complaints by locals that floods had ruined the fields and boundary walls. Late in the 19th century the lower part of the field was said to be inaccessible wetland. These streams have now vanished.

The spring or brook called Fauski flowed here. Oral tradition says that Jón Krukkur, probably a local man who lived in the 16th or 17th century, prophesied that Fauski would destroy Skaftafell farm. Jón is credited with writing a ''prophetic'' poem called Krukkuspá, one of the best known Icelandic manuscripts of this type. It seems that this famous seer confused the rivers and gave the major role of Skeiðará to the brook Fauski.

Here are the remains of a large building with two sections. How the building was used is unknown. People may have lived here for a while; this is suggested by the big, flat area south of the building, surrounded by walls and open to the south. It was probably a vegetable garden; angelica and caraway grow there.

A large three-part sheep shed on Gömlutún was in used until after the middle of the 20th century. It held about 200 sheep. It is interesting how big the sheds seem to have been and that there was no hay store. Skaftafell was a famous sheep farm, partly because of its good winter grazing. For a long time it was not customary ti feed hay to sheep indoors.

The size of the sheds probably reflects how plentiful timber was at Skaftafell, both driftwood and felled wood. Houses here were larger than in other districts and retained the old style of the settlement period. When people moved from Gömlutún onto the hillside, they continued to build in the same manner. Such buildings are still maintained at Sel and the building method can be seen.

In 1833 Þuríður Bjarnadóttir (born 1798) and Brynjólfur Þorsteinsson (1791-1836) from Suðursveit built a farmhouse here. Þuríður was the eldest daughter of Bjarni and Guðný who were the last residents of old Skaftafell farm at the foot of the hillside. 

Þuríður and Brynjólfur had married in 1818 and started a new farm, with a new farmhouse, at Hæðir, higher and further west on the Skaftafell hillside. The moved temporarily to Suðursveit but returned to Skaftafell and built the farm which stood here.

After Brynjólfur died, Þuríður and her family continued to live here for about thirty years. They were the last family to leave Gömlutún and moved to Hæðir where Þuríður and Brynjólfur had their first farm. Þuríður's brothers had already begun to farm on the hillside, Jón at Sel and Þorsteinn at Bölti.

A sheep-fold was built here later. South of the sheep-fold it is still possible to see where Þuríður and her family had a vegetable patch.

Lowland fields and meadows were destroyed by rivers and other forces of nature. Residents were forced to change the wooded slopes above the farm into fields. Trees were felled and manure spread to fertilize the grass. On the steep slopes people made hay in uneven fields. They mowed using scythe, turned hay, raked together and carried it to the barn. At Gömlutún the fields have not been mown for a long time. The trees have still not grown back but it is difficult to walk here: steeply sloping, very uneven and with thick beds of moss amongst the grass.

Skaftafellssýslur, a large district stretching from Sólheimasandur to Lónsheiði, is named after Skaftafell farm. During the Commonwealth period (before 1264) Skaftafell was an assembly site. Local chieftains met before going to the summer parliament (Alþingi) at Þingvellir, and again when they returned. 

Two large volcanic eruptions in Öræfajökull transformed the countryside. Fields were buried in sand and volcanic debris, and farmers fled westwards to Síða in search of food.

The 18th century was hard for Icelanders. At Skaftafell sudden river floods washed sand and mud over lowlying hayfields. Ash and pumice, from Katla for example, lay on woods and meadows. Here, as elsewhere, the famine caused by the Laki eruption took its toll.

The Skaftafell farmers who lived at the foot of the hill retreated up the slope. The ruins in Gömlutún tell part of their story,

The region - wilderness and national park

Gömlutún - Visitor trail

Interpretation

Visitor trail

Old Skaftafell farm

Fauski brook and a prophesy

Outhouse and garden

Sheep shed

Farm, later a sheep fold

Walking around the old fields

The region - wilderness and national park

Brochures & maps

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