Thingvellir Tours
Thingvellir Tours › Walking Almannagjá, the Gorge at the Heart of ThingvellirUpdated 2026-09-10

Walking Almannagjá, the Gorge at the Heart of Thingvellir

Hours, prices and access verified by the Thingvellir Tours team — last checked 2026-09-10

The Almannagjá fault seen from above, with Öxarárfoss falling into it and a path running beside the wall

The short answer. Almannagjá is the gorge along the western edge of the Thingvellir rift, the fault that marks one side of the valley. You walk down into it from the viewing platform beside the Hakið visitor centre at car park P1. The path runs between the fault walls past the flagpole that marks the Law Rock, and the river Öxará falls into the gorge at Öxarárfoss.

Almost every visitor walks Almannagjá, and few can name it. It is the path you take from the viewpoint down to the valley floor, with a wall of lava rising on one side. Here is what you pass, how the gorge was made, and how long you need. The Thingvellir day trips from Reykjavik set out how long each tour gives you there.

What is Almannagjá?

Thingvellir sits in a graben, a sunken block of land about seven kilometres wide. Two faults bound it: Almannagjá on the west and Heiðargjá on the east. The floor is lava about 10,000 years old, from a crater south of Mount Hrafnabjörg.

Almannagjá is the western one, and it is the one you can walk inside. The higher western wall is the side that stayed up; the valley floor is the side that dropped.

Where does the walk start?

At Hakið. The visitor centre stands at the top of Almannagjá beside car park P1, next to the viewing platform where you walk down into the gorge. It is open from 09:00 to 18:00 from April to October, and from 09:00 to 17:00 from November to March.

From the platform you see the whole valley: the plain, the church and the lake, Þingvallavatn, stretching south. Then the path drops into the gorge. The path at the viewpoint is paved, and the map page shows how the car parks and the paths connect.

Pay for parking before you walk. Cameras read number plates at P1, P2 and P5, and one payment of 1,000 ISK a car covers the day in all three. Pay at the machines or online at Checkit.is, and you can end the walk at a different car park from the one you started at.

What do you pass on the way down?

The walk follows the gorge between its walls, with the high western wall beside you the whole way. These are the stops, from the top down.

  • The viewing platform at the top, for the view down the rift.
  • The walls of the fault, close enough to touch from the path.
  • The flagpole on the ledge at the top of the slope called Hallurinn, one of the two candidate sites for the Law Rock.
  • The assembly plain below the gorge, with the booth ruins and the church.
  • Öxarárfoss at the northern end, where the river drops into the gorge.

Where exactly is the Law Rock?

Nobody knows for certain. Lögberg was the hub of the assembly: anyone could speak there, and rulings were announced from it. Two places are proposed. One is the ledge at the top of Hallurinn, north of the Hamraskarð pass, where the flagpole stands now. The other is inside Almannagjá itself, against the higher wall.

The walk passes both, so you can decide for yourself. In 1944 the declaration of independence was signed at Lögberg. The post on why Thingvellir matters tells the rest of the story.

How was the gorge made?

Thingvellir lies in a rift valley on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Away from the plate boundaries the land moves about two centimetres a year. In the rift the stress builds up and releases in bursts; the most recent swept over the valley in the spring of 1789.

You can see the results in the walls. In the summer of 2000, two earthquakes with their source 40 to 50 km to the south-east dropped stones from the ravine walls and clouded the water of Flosagjá. The gorge is a working fault, not a monument. The nature page explains the plates and the microplate between them.

Öxarárfoss, at the northern end

The Öxará river falls into the gorge at Öxarárfoss. The Sturlunga saga says the river was diverted into Almannagjá to give the assembly fresh water. Whether or not that is so, the waterfall is where the river enters the story of the place.

Car park P2, Efri-Vellir, sits below the falls. If you park there, you can walk up to Öxarárfoss first and then south along the gorge. The national park page covers the falls and the fissures below.

The walk at a glance

StopWhat you seeNearest car park
Hakið viewing platformThe whole rift, the church, the lakeP1 Hakið
The gorge pathThe western fault wall close upP1 Hakið
The flagpoleOne candidate site of the Law RockP1 or P2
The waterfallThe Öxará falling into the gorgeP2 Efri-Vellir
The church and fissuresPeningagjá, Flosagjá, ÞingvallakirkjaP5 Valhöll

How long do you need?

Half an hour covers the viewpoint, the walk down the gorge and the flagpole. That is what a Golden Circle coach gives you, and it is enough to see why people come.

An hour adds the waterfall at an easy pace. Two hours, the time a private half-day allows, lets you cross the plain to Peningagjá and the church and walk back. If you want all of it, the walking route guide plans 30 minutes, two hours and four hours stop by stop.

On a tour, the time is set for you. The Golden Circle coaches give the park 30 to 45 minutes, which covers the gorge and the flagpole. Prime Tours' private tour gives you four hours, enough for the whole valley, the lakeshore and the exhibition at the top of the gorge.

What to wear, and when to go

The walk is outdoors in every season. The park's own weather record, from station 945 between 1949 and 1983, gives July a mean of 10.5 °C and January a mean of −2.6 °C, and recent decades run warmer. October is the wettest month. Bring layers, a waterproof and shoes with grip.

In winter the visitor centre closes at 17:00 and the light is short: about four hours of daylight in mid-December. In June you have about 21 hours. The weather page goes month by month, and visiting the park has the hours and fees.

If you would rather not drive, the gorge is on every Golden Circle tour that stops in the park. Silfra, the snorkelling fissure, is reached from car park P5, the one nearest the church, so you can end a walk there if you have a snorkel booked.

Want longer in the gorge than a coach allows? The three below range from a Golden Circle stop to four hours in the park; every other fare is on Thingvellir Tours.

Tours that walk you down the gorge