4 Jun 2017 - Iceland Day 10: Írskubúðir (Camp of the Irish) and Írskrabrunnur (Well of the Irish)

From Google map, we saw a spot called Well of the Irish.  We had no idea what it is but we decided to go and take a look.  At a T-junction, we took a turn to the right.  From the car park, we walked towards a stone structure.

From the look of the structure, it does not look like any sort of a well.  There were wooden rods stucking out of the stony structure.  A quick search on the web showed that this could be the remains of a "Camp of the Irish" called Írskrabyrgi, which are ruins of a settlement farm dating back to ca 850-950.

We then walked down to the shore and came to a monument with wordings that we do not understand.  Apparently, it is a monument for the last woman living at Gufuskálar, Elínborg Þorbjarnardóttir (1860-1947), but she lived here from 1898 until 1946.

Walking further down we saw a tall mast from a distance. This mast was the second highest mast of its kind in Western Europe but it is the highest structure in Iceland at 412 metres. The mast is a guyed radio mast and looks quite majestic.

We drove back to the T-junction and now took the left turn.  From the car park, we walked towards another structure that looks more like a well.

We confirmed it is the Well of the Irish called Írskrabrunnur that we were looking for after looking at the information signage.

There is a stairs that lead down to the well.

We decided to go down but had to be careful as some steps were broken.

At the entrance to the well, there was an ancient right whale bone above the steps.

The well was totally dried up and we could stand right at the bottom of it.

What an experience it was to be standing right at the bottom of a well.

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