Whale Bay
Hvaleyri is a sandspit south of Hafnarfjörður, ideal for a trip to the coast. Its name comes from when Hrafna-Flóki and his companions found a baleen whale on the spit. There is now a golf course there, but traces of an ancient settlement can still be seen in the area.
Whale Bay Hvaleyrir is one of the oldest farms in Hafnarfjörður. Before the Reformation, the Viðey Abbey owned Hvaleyrir, which then became a royal estate. A chapel stood there until 1765. There were also farm buildings.
The golf course and landscape
Keilir Golf Club was established in 1967. That same summer, the golf course at Hvaleyri was opened and has been in operation there ever since. Although the landscape has been extensively altered for the golf course, traces of the settlement can still be seen, such as field walls and outhouse ruins. These relics provide a good, if fragmentary, insight into the way of life on Hvaler in earlier centuries. Remains from the British military, such as various gun emplacements and trenches, are still clearly visible; for example, a very prominent, standing wartime laundry.
Hrafna-Flóki
The Viking Hrafna-Flóki came to this land around the year 860, along with Þórólfur and Faxi the South-Icelandic, after whom Faxaós (Faxaflói) is named. When Flóki intended to return to Norway after a year's stay in Vatnsfjörður, his ships were caught in a storm and were unable to sail past the Reykjanes peninsula. Herjólfur became separated from his companions and landed at Herjólfshofn. Flóki and his men spent the winter in Borgarfjörður but attempted to return home the following summer. They came to Hafnarfjörður. They found a whale on a headland off the fjord and called it Hvaleyri. Before Hrafna-Flóki set out to find Garðarshólmi (Iceland), he built a cairn at Smjörsund in Norway and sacrificed three ravens who were to show him the way across the sea. In 1997, a similar cairn was built at Hvaleyri from stones from Smjörsund to commemorate this event.