Helgustaðanáma Hiking Trail
The Iceland spar mine in Helgustaðaland can be found on the way from Eskifjörður to Vöðlavík, and a footpath leads to it. Helgustaðanáma is an old Iceland spar mine in the land of Helgustaðir in Eskifjörður, which was protected as a natural monument in 1975. Helgustaðanáma is one of the most famous spar mines in the world, where spar was excavated from the ground from the 17th century until the first half of the 20th century.
Most of the Iceland spar in museums around the world comes from the mine at Helgustaðir, but some of the largest and purest specimens of spar in the world were found in Helgustaðanáma. Iceland spar is a particularly clear crystal of the rock calcite, but the rock played a vital role in developing various studies on the properties of light. Today the Iceland spar is protected, and it is strictly forbidden to remove it from Helgustaðanáma.