The Cave People

The Caves have been rebuilt to look exactly like they did when the last Cave People in Iceland lived there only a century ago.

Join us on a guided tour of the Caves and their surroundings, and we will bring the story to life with fantastic tales about how they lived, their struggles and their happiness. The tour length is 25 minutes, and we have a new departure every 30 minutes. Before or after the tour, you can relax in our Cave Café for a cup of coffee and some traditional Icelandic treats.

Laugarvatnshellar is two man-made caves between Þingvellir National Park and Laugarvatn (the village with Fontana Geothermal baths). There are no sources to determine who made these caves or when they were made. Some have suggested the caves were made by Irish monks before the settlement, which began in 874.

The Caves were used by shepherds through the centuries, as the surroundings were excellent for grazing. The Caves would be used as a shelter for both sheep and shepherds. After some episodes with ghosts in the Caves, shepherds stopped using them.

In the year 1910, a young couple, Indriði Guðmundsson and Guðrún Kolbeinsdóttir, moved into the Caves and lived there for a year.

In 1918 another couple, Jón Þorvarðsson and Vigdís Helgadóttir, moved in and lived in the Caves for four years.

Both residents had some sheep, a cow and some horses. They grew potatoes, hunted ptarmigan and picked wild berries. They sold ptarmigan in Reykjavík and refreshments to travellers on their way from and to Reykjavík and people travelling The Golden Circle.