Akureyri Botanical Garden

Akureyri sits just below the Arctic Circle at the head of a long fjord, and its garden, laid out in the early twentieth century as a public park, grew into a working botanical collection: the species native to Iceland gathered in one section, and several thousand foreign plants in the other, grown outdoors to see what the climate will take. A surprising amount of it survives, helped by the shelter of the fjord and the long summer light. The result is a garden of mature trees, borders and lawns that looks improbable this far north, and it costs nothing to walk into.

What you actually see

• The Icelandic collection - the country's native flora gathered in one place.
• The foreign species - thousands of plants from other cold regions grown outdoors.
• The trees - mature planting that contradicts the usual treeless picture of Iceland.
• The fjord view - Eyjafjordur below the terraces of the garden.

When to go

June to September, when the beds are planted and the garden is open; it closes for winter and there is nothing to see under snow. Late June to early August is peak flowering. It is a short walk from the town centre, so it fits around a flight, a ferry or a whale-watching trip out of Akureyri.

Honest expectations

It is a municipal garden rather than a grand botanical institution, and outside the short summer it is shut or bare. Labelling is patchy in places. Anyone who came to Iceland for volcanic landscape may find a flowerbed an odd use of an afternoon. The walk up from town is steeper than it looks on the map.

Nearby

Akureyri's centre, the fjord and the road east to Godafoss and Myvatn are all close.