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The abandoned farm Theistareykir, and the
surrounding area with the same name, is accessible by a road from the
county Kelduhverfi and Husavik by the moorland Reykjaheidi. This road
continues all the way south to the Holssandur road, which connects The
Lake Myvatn area with the town Husavik. The immediate surroundings of
the ruins of the farm are well vegetated and green in spite of their
344 m elevation. In the past, the nearest church, Grenjadarstadur, was
about 19 km away.
The farm was finally abandoned in
1874, but now a nice shelter of the farmers for the period
of the round up of the sheep stands there. Theistareykir and
the shield volcano Theistareykjabunga are one of the high
temperature areas feasible for exploitation in the near
future. In the past sulphur was mined there and processed
before it was shipped to Copenhagen.
According to the
legend, 12 polar bears once visited the farm and killed the people.
The farmer’s son, who had been absent at the time, came back home
only to find a few parts of his mother’s body. He chased the animals
and killed them all. There is also some talk about a ghost, a brown,
and monster like dog, which haunted the farm. The shield volcano rises
only 564 m above mean sea level and has a very gradual slopes. Its
crater is about 550 m long, 50-60 m wide and 40 m deep. Two other
craters, Stora- and Litla Viti are south of the shield volcano. Great
lava fields in the Kelduhverfi County originate from them.
During the summer of 2002, a few experimental boreholes were sunk in
the area to test the capacity of the high temperature area for future
exploitation. |