Hvítserkur
Rising from the sea like a stone monster
Hvitserkur, which translates to mean “white shirt” and derives its name from being covered in Shag and Commerant guano, rises 15 metres, or nearly 50 feet from the sea.
Once the plug of a volcano, over the years the craters surrounding the rock plug gave way to the pounding Atlantic Ocean leaving only the unusual outcropping Hvítserkur behind. Curiously Hvítserkur itself would have given way to the ocean as wel, had its foundations not been shored up with concrete some years ago.
Said to look like a dragon drinking from the water, the Icelandic legend has it that it was a troll who forgot to retreat from the light and was turned to stone in the sunrise. The geological oddity was commemorated on an Icelandic stamp in 1990.
Read more about Hvítserkur on Atlas Obscura…
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Edited by: Dylan