Meltwater from the same volcano that grounded European air travel for a week in 2010
60m
Height (~197 ft)
Full loop
Fully walkable behind it
Eyjafjalla- jökull
Source glacier
Free
To visit
The Story
Seljalandsfoss isn't Iceland's tallest or most powerful waterfall — that's very much the point. What makes it famous is a genuinely rare feature: a walkable path runs completely behind the curtain of falling water, letting you stand inside the waterfall and look out through it rather than just at it. Few waterfalls anywhere in the world let you do that safely.
The water feeding it comes down from Eyjafjallajökull, the glacier-capped volcano whose 2010 eruption briefly became one of the most famous natural events of the decade — the ash cloud shut down airspace across roughly 20 countries and stranded travelers worldwide for days. You're looking at meltwater from the exact same mountain, still quietly running down to the coast years later, long after the headlines moved on.
The volcano that grounded a continent is still just... running water downhill.
As You Walk Around
Easy to miss if you're not looking
Bring something waterproof, genuinely — not just a jacket. The path behind the falls puts you close enough to get a real soaking from spray, especially on a windy day.
Watch the light on a clear day. Standing behind the curtain of water, sunlight filtering through the falling spray creates a soft glow that's a big part of why this spot is so photographed.
Don't stop here — Gljúfrabúi, the hidden waterfall a short walk north, sits on the exact same ancient sea cliff. It's easy to treat Seljalandsfoss as the whole stop and miss it.
Fun Trivia
Things most visitors don't know
Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, and Gljúfrabúi are all the same geological feature. They're separate waterfalls dropping over one continuous ancient sea cliff that used to mark Iceland's coastline — rivers coming off the highland plateau simply had nowhere else to go but straight over the edge.
That old coastline has been retreating for thousands of years. Erosion has pushed the cliff line roughly 25 kilometers inland from where the coast originally was, which is why these waterfalls now sit well back from the modern shore.