Barnafoss Waterfall
Barnafoss, meaning Children's Falls, is a turbulent gorge waterfall on the Hvítá river in Borgarfjörður, West Iceland, a short walk upstream from its geologically remarkable neighbour Hraunfossar. The name comes from a folk legend: two boys, left at home while their parents went to church, took a shortcut across a natural stone arch over the falls. Both fell in and drowned. Their mother laid a curse on the bridge, and shortly after an earthquake destroyed it. The waterfall races through a narrow channel carved from volcanic rock, strikingly different from the quiet, diffuse streams of Hraunfossar just 200 metres away. The two are almost always visited together and take less than an hour to see.
A Grieving Mother's Curse, a Destroyed Stone Bridge, and Two Very Different Waterfalls in West Iceland
Barnafoss and Hraunfossar sit side by side on the Hvítá river near Reykholt in Borgarfjörður, and the contrast between them is one of the most striking waterfall pairings in Iceland. Hraunfossar, meaning Lava Falls, is a series of small streams that seep out from beneath the Hallmundarhraun lava field over about 900 metres, filtering through porous volcanic rock from Langjökull glacier and appearing along the riverbank in dozens of delicate milky-turquoise trickles. Barnafoss, immediately upstream, is its dramatic opposite: the same river forces through a narrow gorge it has carved through the volcanic rock, churning and foaming as it goes.
The legend of Barnafoss is among the more affecting in Icelandic folklore. Two young brothers at the nearby farm of Hraunsás were left alone while their parents walked to church at Christmas. Growing bored, the boys decided to follow, taking a shortcut across a natural stone arch spanning the gorge. Both lost their footing and drowned. Their mother laid a curse on the bridge, and shortly after an earthquake destroyed it. No trace of it remains, but the story explains both the name and the absence of any natural crossing.
Both waterfalls are free to visit and reached via Route 518, turning off the Ring Road about 30 minutes north of Borgarnes. The combined visit takes around an hour from a shared car park. The area is about 1.5 hours from Reykjavík. Deildartunguhver, Europe's most powerful hot spring, is a short drive away at Reykholt and makes a natural addition to the same half-day loop.
