Sheep Trail Adventures

02/11/2026

02/11/2026

To give you a little break from all the maps until the end of the year, here are some nostalgic photos from around the same time of year.

01/11/2026

Göltur and Keflavík: the boar mountain at the mouth of Súgandafjörður, and the bay behind it at the edge of the open sea.
The third piece of our map. Seen from the sea, Göltur looks like a boar's head, and that is its name. Between the farm Göltur and Keflavík there was only the stony shore under its cliffs. Magnús Hjaltason walked it in April 1896, with stones falling past his shoulder, and called it "hinn skelfilegasti vegur", the most terrible road he had ever taken. Guðný Sigríður Magnúsdóttir, a maid in Keflavík, walked it at night for years to row with the boats of Göltur.
Keflavík, the bay of driftwood logs, was farmed by 1200 and left in 1900. In 1920 the lighthouse Galtarviti was lit on Keflavíkurhóll; keepers lived there until 1994.
If a name sits in the wrong place or a story is missing, tell us in the comments. Every correction goes back into the map.
Names: Örnefnaskrá for Göltur and Keflavík by Kjartan Ólafsson, with Kristján G. Þorvaldsson 1949; the Örnefnamyndir blog of Fornminjafélag Súgfirðinga; Landmælingar Íslands IS 50V.
Map data: ArcticDEM elevation (Polar Geospatial Center), the source of ÍslandsDEM; Landmælingar Íslands; Náttúrufræðistofnun; Land og skógur; Copernicus Sentinel-2; EMODnet Bathymetry; © OpenStreetMap contributors.

31/10/2026

I’d also like the world we’re creating to have an interactive layer, allowing people to immerse themselves more deeply in it.

31/10/2026

Þekkir þú Sauðanes? Do you know this headland?

We are mapping the place names of Sauðanes in Súgandafjörður piece by piece, and we need the people who know this ground. If a name sits in the wrong place, is spelled wrong, or carries a story we have missed, tell us in the comments or send us a message. Every correction goes back into the map.

Kjartan Ólafsson begins his walk home to Staður at Gathamar, the crag where the old districts of Önundarfjörður and Súgandafjörður meet. From there the names follow the shore one after another.

Hlöðuteigar, the slopes above Hlöðugil, may remember sheep shelters that once stood there. On Hánes a small lighthouse has blinked to passing boats since about 1960.

Off the point lie the Slotsker. The swell calms (slotar) behind them, and rowers were glad to get inside. On 11 November 1894 Einar Jónsson wrote in his diary of a rough headwind „innfyrir Slotskerin”, in behind the skerries. Some call them Slorsker; one story says fish were once gutted there.

Hvalvík is named after a stranded whale. Above it runs Manntapagil, the gully of the lost man, where a shepherd is said to have died in an avalanche. Kjartan went through the parish records of Rev. Andrés Hjaltason and found no such death, but an old annal tells of a sheep boy from Staður killed by a slide in 1690.

From Stórhóll you first see home to Staður.

Names: Örnefnaskrá for Staður í Súgandafirði and Eyri by Kjartan Ólafsson, with the older sources he cites (Kristján G. Þorvaldsson 1949, Óskar Einarsson 1951, the diary of Einar Jónsson); the Örnefnamyndir blog of Fornminjafélag Súgfirðinga; Landmælingar Íslands IS 50V.
Map data: ArcticDEM elevation (Polar Geospatial Center), the source of ÍslandsDEM; Landmælingar Íslands; Náttúrufræðistofnun; Land og skógur; Copernicus Sentinel-2; EMODnet Bathymetry; © OpenStreetMap contributors.

29/10/2026

My vision behind this project was never just to create a map, but to combine the possibilities of interactive technology with traditional knowledge.

Before you call it a night, I’d like to show you our model and map from a completely different perspective this time.

I hope you enjoy it!

29/10/2026

I'm sharing a few new views of the progress I've made on the map.

My ultimate goal is to create a complete 3D model of the area, including reconstructions of historical sites and other important landmarks.

I think I'm slowly reaching the final stages of working on the terrain and surface layers. We're also gradually adding place names, of which there are an incredible number in this area — 871, to be exact.

The final map will be printed in A1 format, at a scale of approximately 1:27,000. Unfortunately, at this size and scale, it's impossible to include all the place names while maintaining proper cartographic standards and keeping the map clear and readable.

My idea is therefore to create smaller, more detailed map sections that will allow us to include every single name.

Eventually, I'd also love to have an interactive map on our website, with vector-based place names that appear progressively as users zoom in. But there's still a tremendous amount of work ahead of us before we get there.

In the meantime, I'm sharing a few new views to show you how the project is progressing.

Best regards!

28/10/2026

Work on our main map is slowly coming to an end. Only the final layer with place names remains.

It has taken us much longer than we originally planned, but then again, we never expected to create something quite this detailed when we first started.

I hope that by the beginning of the new year, we'll be able to close this chapter of our story and proudly put it on the shelf.

Best wishes to everyone! And what do you think of the color scheme?