About AEgissidufoss
AEgissidufoss (Ægissiðufoss; I think it’s pronounced “AYE-jih-sih-thuh-foss”) was a wide waterfall on the river Ytri Rangá, which I found interesting because I was able to photograph the falls with Mt Hekla in the background.
Mt Hekla was said to be one of the most active volcanos in Iceland as it has erupted at least once in almost every century since the Settlement Age.
From the car park (see directions below), it was a short walk to get a view of the waterfall.
When we first visited in July 2007, we managed to get right to the bank of the Ytri-Rangá River for the view you see in the photo above.
On that visit, we were lucky enough to have good enough weather to even see Mt Hekla behind Ægissiðufoss because it’s usually covered in clouds (something that happened to us when we came back 14 years later).
Speaking of our August 2021 visit, we noticed that there was a wooden-stepped path descending to the banks of the river (which wasn’t there when on our first visit).
However, that path was labeled private so the riverside views were now considered trespassing and we had to be content with more elevated views higher up away from the riverbank.
I suspect that the riverbank path was meant for those with permits to fish this part of the river, and the salmon ladder to the left side of Ægissiðufoss further drove home the point that fish do frequent the Ytri-Rangá.
As a result, we didn’t spend very much time at this waterfall though I couldn’t help but notice that there was a bench on the other side of the river.
This suggested that it might have been possible to visit the other side of Ægissiðufoss though I’m not sure what it would take to get there since we didn’t do it.
Finally, I tried to look up the meaning of the first part of the waterfall’s name, ægissiðu, which meant “eggshell”, but it didn’t seem to make much sense in the context of this waterfall.
Given the many forms that nouns and adjectives can take in the Icelandic language (via a grammatical construct known as “declensions”), it’s hard to say if there’s a different meaning or translation that I’m missing here.
For example, ægissið could mean “the egg” while ægissiður could mean “custom”, and neither of these things make much sense to me in the context of this waterfall.
Authorities
Ægissiðufoss resides in the South Region near Hella, Iceland. It is administered by the municipality of Rangárþing eystra. For information or inquiries about the general area as well as current conditions, you may want to try visiting their website.
AEgissidufoss (Ægissiðufoss) was literally a short distance downstream from the town of Hella.
From the roundabout east of the Ytri-Rangá River in Hella, we’d drive about 850m (crossing the bridge over the river) to the Route 25 whose turnoff was on the left.
Then, we’d drive about 2.7km south on the Route 25 until reaching a signed turnoff on the left for Ægissiðufoss, where we’d then drive the final 400m on a rather bumpy and potholed stretch to the car park.
Overall, this drive would take about 5 minutes.
For geographical context, Hella was 37km (30 minutes drive) east of Selfoss, 13km (about 15 minutes drive) west of Hvolsvöllur, and 94km (about 90 minutes drive) southeast of Reykjavík.
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Back and forth sweep from between the private steps and the fish ladder by the falls, which includes a zoomed-in panning of the falls itself
Back and forth sweep as seen from further downstream closer to the picnic area and car park, but Mt Hekla was shrouded in clouds and not visible
Zig-zagged sweep revealing the falls zoomed in before zooming out for context
Trying to stay fixated on the falls and Mt Hekla during our July 2007 visit. But as you can see from how shaky the video was, Julie was really fighting the strong winds
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