Budakirkja, the Black Church at Budir

Budir is barely a place any more, just a hotel, a car park and a church on the edge of the Budahraun lava field, where the moss runs down toward a pale beach. The church is a plain timber box, tarred black, with white trim, a small bell tower and a low stone wall around its graveyard. There has been a church on this ground since the eighteenth century, and the present building is a nineteenth-century one, taken down at one point and later rebuilt. It is photographed constantly for the contrast: black wood, green moss, white surf and, on a clear day, Snaefellsjokull to the west.

History

Búðir, once called Hraunhöfn, was a trading harbour from the early centuries of settlement; under the Danish monopoly its trading district covered all of southern Snæfellsnes and Mýrasýsla, and fishing and shark-hunting went on here until 1933. In 1701 the merchant Bendt Lauridsen got the bishop's permission to build a church - the story goes that its site was chosen by where a marked arrow fell - and the first church, of turf, was consecrated in 1703. A royal letter closed it in 1816. Steinunn, the widow of a local man who had long fought to get it back, kept its fittings safe and carried on the campaign, and permission came on condition that the people of Búðir paid for and kept up the church themselves; the old door ring still reads "1703 Bendt Lauridsen" on one side and, on the other, that the church was rebuilt in 1848 without the help of the spiritual fathers. The church was rebuilt again to the original drawings from Denmark in 1984-86 and reconsecrated on 6 September 1987 (Icelandic Wikipedia, Búðir).

What's there

• The black timber church - tarred boards, white trim and a small bell tower.
• The graveyard wall - a low turf and stone enclosure holding old headstones.
• Budahraun - the mossed lava field around the church, crossed by a marked path.
• The shore - pale shell sand and open water a short walk south.

When to go

Year-round; the black church against snow works as well as against summer moss, and low winter sun sets it off best. Photographers gather at sunrise and sunset, so mid-morning is the quiet slot. The interior keeps very limited hours and is usually shut, so treat a look inside as a bonus rather than the plan.

Practical notes

This is a fifteen-minute stop, not a destination, and the car park is small for the number of cars that pull in. The church is normally locked. It stands beside a hotel, so the surroundings are less lonely than the photographs suggest. When the wind comes off the sea, standing outside for long is genuinely unpleasant.

Nearby

Arnarstapi, Hellnar and the Snaefellsjokull cone lie west along the peninsula.