Víkurfjara

The beautiful Víkurfjara beach in front of the village of Vik is mostly a sand beach but can have a high portion of gravel as well, especially during the winter months. The sand is of course black and is mostly volcanic products from Katla volcano.

The beach is relatively young beach, as it started to form during the 17th century due to repeated glacial outburst floods from Katla. In the decades following the 1918 eruption of Katla, the beach grew rapidly and extended about 500-600 meters further to the south than it does today. Around the year 1970 the growth stopped, and the coastline started to recede and in 1990 the coastline had receded so close to the village that it had become a concern.

To defend the village a small flood defence wall was built in 1995, and there is a nice walking path on top of it today, and then two groynes were built in 2012 and 2017. Since the groynes were built the beach there has stabilized and even grown. East of the groynes, the erosion of the coastline has continued, and the display can be quite magnificent when waves hit the beach ridge.