Foss á Síðu

Foss á Síðu is located adjacent to Highway 1 about 11.3km east of the roundabout in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Signs along the road call attention to the falls, and a short gravel road and pullout for easy viewing can be found on the immediate east side of the bridge over the small stream.Foss á Síðu is a lofty, but comparatively low volume waterfall which plunges over a curvaceous basaltic cliff behind a couple of farm houses, right next to Highway 1. The falls drop 268-feet in all, with a primary drop of 238-feet that plunges for the majority of its fall, only to impact on a sloped pitch of bedrock and veil the final portion of its drop. The second tier is a narrow horsetail-style fall of another 30-feet, with huge boulders strewn across the hillside on either side of the stream channel and below the final portion of the fall itself. The unnamed stream which produces this waterfall appears to originate in a small lake less than two kilometers upstream, and the whole drainage basin appears to only be a few square kilometers in size, so while it may flow boisterously during the snow melt season, by the middle of summer the creek will be reduced considerably (though given Iceland's moist climate it is highly unlikely it will run dry).