Head out along Road 242, past Skógar, and a gravel lot marks the end of the drive – this is where the walk to Seljavallalaug starts. The path runs beside a river, cutting through low grass and rock for about twenty minutes before the pool comes into view. Seljavallalaug sits at the base of a steep mountainside, with one long edge pressed right up against the rock and the rest open to the valley and sky.
The pool is rectangular – 25 meters by 10 – with poured concrete on three sides and the mountain forming the fourth. There’s no fence or formal entrance, just a rough concrete apron around the water and a set of basic changing rooms nearby. These changing rooms are semi-open, with no doors or partitions; most people leave their bags on a bench or hook inside. The ground stays uneven – gravel, grass, and mud, depending on the weather.
Water flows in from a geothermal spring, keeping the pool somewhere between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, depending on the season. The bottom is often slick with algae, especially later in the summer, and the water runs greenish in the corners. Most bring water shoes and a towel – there’s nowhere to rent or buy anything, and no bins for trash. The pool is only cleaned once a year, so anything that comes in tends to stick around.
There’s nothing organized here – no lifeguards, no staff, no posted hours. Swimming is at your own risk, and the only real rule is to leave the place as you found it. The setting is quiet, ringed by steep hills and open sky, with the sound of the river and the wind moving through the valley. No lighting, no shelter – just the pool, the mountain, and whatever weather comes in.
Seljavallalaug was built in 1923 by Björn Andrésson and local youth groups, mainly to teach swimming when few people in Iceland knew how. It was the largest pool in Iceland until 1936. In 2010, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption filled it with ash, and volunteers spent the next summer clearing it out. The setup hasn’t changed much in nearly a century, and it’s still one of the oldest pools in use anywhere in the country.
