thumb|260px|Location of Snæfellsnes in Iceland

The Snæfellsnes () is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western Iceland.

The peninsula has a volcanic origin having the Snæfellsnes volcanic belt down its centre, and the Snæfellsjökull volcano, regarded as one of the symbols of Iceland, at its western tip. With its height of , it is the highest mountain on the peninsula and has a glacier at its peak (jökull means "glacier" in Icelandic). The volcano can be seen on clear days from Reykjavík, a distance of about . The mountain is also known as the setting of the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by the French author Jules Verne. The area surrounding Snæfellsjökull has been designated one of the four national parks by the government of Iceland. It is also the home of the Ingjaldsholl church, a Protestant church.

The peninsula is one of the main settings in the Laxdœla saga and it was, according to this saga, the birthplace of the first West Norse member of the Varangian Guard, Bolli Bollasson. Other historical people who lived in the area according to the saga include Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, Bolli Þorleiksson and Snorri Goði.

thumb|260px|right|Snæfellsjökull volcano

thumb|260px|Arnarstapi on Snæfellsnes

Local fishing villages and small towns on the Snæfellsnes peninsula include Arnarstapi, Hellnar, Rif , Ólafsvík, Grundarfjörður and Stykkishólmur.

Near Hellissandur is the tallest structure in western Europe, the Longwave Radio Mast at Hellissandur.

In June 2008, the people of Snæfellsnes reached certification status as an EarthCheck community, becoming the first EarthCheck-certified area in Iceland and in Europe, and only the fourth in the world. Snæfellsnes has been committed to the EarthCheck programme since 2003 and has been successfully benchmarked for the past five consecutive years.

Ecology

On the peninsula 323 species of flowering plants and ferns have been identified and generally the plant ecology is typical of the Iceland boreal birch forests and alpine tundra ecosystem. Ligusticum scoticum (Scots lovage, Scottish licorice-root) is an edible plant only found in Iceland on the western aspects of the peninsula.

See also

  • Geography of Iceland
  • Volcanism of Iceland
  • EarthCheck

References

  • Information on the national park
  • Photo of mountain Kirkjufell near Grundarfjörður
  • Official website, Westiceland