Selatangar

Selatangar was a seasonal fishing station on the south coast of Reykjanes, worked from the middle ages until it was given up around 1884, and what survives is a scatter of low dry-stone structures built into the lava: shelters where crews slept, drying stations for fish, and windbreaks. There is no mortar and no timber left, so the ruins read as walls of stacked lava blocks half returned to the ground. The place has a long reputation for being haunted by a ghost called Tanga-Tomas, a story that was current while the station was still worked. Nothing has been built here since, and the site is unmanaged apart from an information board.

What you actually see

• Dry-stone shelters in lava - crew quarters and fish drying structures.
• Abandoned around 1884 - after centuries of seasonal use.
• No timber or mortar - only stacked blocks remain.
• A ghost story from the working years - Tanga-Tomas, told while the station ran.

When to go

May to September; the coast is bleak and the track poor otherwise. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The ruins are low and easy to walk past without noticing what they are. The lava is sharp and uneven. Surf here is dangerous and reaches further up the shore than expected. No facilities and no signal.

Nearby

Grindavik is west; Krysuvik and Seltun are inland to the east.