<< Our Photo Pages >> Borgarvirki - Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle in Iceland
Submitted by KaiHofmann on Friday, 16 April 2010 Page Views: 5845
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: BorgarvirkiCountry: Iceland
NOTE: This site is 14.751 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle
Nearest Town: Blönduós Nearest Village: Borg
Latitude: 65.474810N Longitude: 20.59663W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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markj99 visited on 15th Nov 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Access: 4 I was fortunate to visit Borgarvirki Fort on the cusp of Winter, a fresh layer of snow adding atmosphere to an impressive site. Although my visit predated Game of Thrones it seems to me that Borgarvirki could easily have been transported from the icy wastes beyond The Wall.
Additional text by CharcoalBurner89: Borgarvirki is one of the few forts discovered in Iceland to date. It is located in the western part of the Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla district and not far from the Hóp Lagoon in the north of the country. The fortress probably dates from the 10th or 11th century.
The fortress rests at a height of 177 m on a natural bulwark of basalt columns between Lake Vesturhópsvatn and Víðidalur. The 10-15 m high basalt columns form a fortress-like structure with a 5-6 m deep depression in the middle and an opening to the east. Further rock layers of 1 to 2 m in height and up to 30 m in length were piled up on top of the basalt columns.
In the middle you can see the remains of one or two huts from the Viking Age. The larger one measures 9 m × 4 m, the smaller one 8 m × 4 m. The remains of a well have also been discovered.
The Heiðarvíga saga, for example, tells of Barður Guðmundarsson and his quarrel with the Borgfirdingers. He is credited with building the Borgarvirki.
Another source refers to Finnbogur rammi, who lived at Stóra-Borg and was at odds with the Vatnsdælingers. A third story tells that the first settlers of the Ingimundur Gamli area had the Borgarvirki built as a job creation measure during the winter period. This is quite conceivable, although Ingimundur would certainly have thought more about protecting his property. In any case, according to the Vatnsdæla saga, it had its first settlement at the foot of Borgarvirki before finally settling in Vatnsdalur.
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