Guests visiting Raufarhólshellir cave will soon have to pay a fee to enter the caves, reports Vísir. Landowners have signed a contract with a private company that will manage the area and operate guided tours into the caves.
The Raufarhólshellir cave is located forty minutes from Reykjavík, close to Þorlákshöfn. Perched on top of a hill and surrounded by dramatic lava fields, the cave has been a popular destination among travellers. The cave formed as a lava tube during the Leitahraun eruption 4,600 years ago and is Iceland’s fourth longest cave.
The cave has always been open to the public, but according to Vísir, due to visitors’ mistreatment of the cave and a number of accidents landowners were forced to take action. The cave had almost been stripped bare of stalactites, structures that hang like icicles from the roof of a cave and are formed of calcium salts deposited by dripping water. Stalactites are the only type of protected rock formation in Iceland.
“We faced two options: close the cave or have a private company operate scheduled tours into the cave,” one of the landowners explained.
Hallgrímur Kristinsson, who heads the ambitious project, says the company intends to improve facilities in and around the cave and construct a viewing point inside the cave.
Guides will lead guests into the dramatic underworld of the cave and inform them during the tour.
Guests visiting Raufarhólshellir cave will soon have to pay a fee to enter the caves, reports Vísir. Landowners have signed a contract with a private company that will manage the area and operate guided tours into the caves.
The Raufarhólshellir cave is located forty minutes from Reykjavík, close to Þorlákshöfn. Perched on top of a hill and surrounded by dramatic lava fields, the cave has been a popular destination among travellers. The cave formed as a lava tube during the Leitahraun eruption 4,600 years ago and is Iceland’s fourth longest cave.
The cave has always been open to the public, but according to Vísir, due to visitors’ mistreatment of the cave and a number of accidents landowners were forced to take action. The cave had almost been stripped bare of stalactites, structures that hang like icicles from the roof of a cave and are formed of calcium salts deposited by dripping water. Stalactites are the only type of protected rock formation in Iceland.
“We faced two options: close the cave or have a private company operate scheduled tours into the cave,” one of the landowners explained.
Hallgrímur Kristinsson, who heads the ambitious project, says the company intends to improve facilities in and around the cave and construct a viewing point inside the cave.
Guides will lead guests into the dramatic underworld of the cave and inform them during the tour.
