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Iceland Iceland forest

Þingvallaskógar

Christian Bickel · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

1% trees around it and 274 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km1%
  • wild within 10 km100%
  • species recorded274
  • Altitude149 m

The forest around

1% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Shrubland 87%Grassland 13%Built-up 0%Trees 1%Shrubland 57%Grassland 35%Moss and lichen 0%Water 8%Trees 1%Shrubland 14%Grassland 63%Moss and lichen 8%Water 12%Bare ground 2%Cropland 0%Trees 1%Shrubland 1%Grassland 56%Moss and lichen 25%Water 13%Bare ground 5%1%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km0%
  • 1–3 km1%
  • 3–6 km1%
  • 6–10 km1%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees1%
  • Shrubland57%
  • Grassland35%
  • Moss and lichen0%
  • Water8%
  • Bare ground0%
  • Cropland0%
  • Built-up0%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

274 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Wood Crane's-bill
Wood Crane's-billGeranium sylvaticum84 recordsPhilipp Weigell · CC BY 3.0
Water Avens
Water AvensGeum rivale67 recordsDidier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
Garden angelica
Garden angelicaAngelica archangelica57 recordsFranz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen · Public domain
Velvetbells
VelvetbellsBartsia alpina52 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Heather
HeatherCalluna vulgaris44 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Salix lanata
Salix lanataSalix lanata42 recordsSten Porse · CC BY-SA 3.0
Brown Birch
Brown BirchBetula pubescens40 recordsDirk Ingo Franke · CC BY-SA 2.0
Northern bedstraw
Northern bedstrawGalium boreale39 recordsKristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 06:36, 2 July 2007 (UTC) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Mother of thyme
Mother of thymeThymus praecox30 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Kinnikinnick
KinnikinnickArctostaphylos uva-ursi29 recordsWalter Siegmund · CC BY 2.5
Rowan
RowanSorbus aucuparia28 recordsGiallopolenta · Public domain
Dwarf Birch
Dwarf BirchBetula nana23 recordsUSDA photo, uploader user:MPF · Public domain

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

49out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 1%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 100%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 274Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 149 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking in July.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan-1°-6°160 mm
  2. Feb-1°-6°148 mm
  3. Mar0°-5°141 mm
  4. Apr3°-2°111 mm
  5. May8°1°86 mm
  6. Jun12°5°76 mm
  7. Jul14°7°92 mm
  8. Aug13°6°101 mm
  9. Sep8°3°154 mm
  10. Oct4°-1°123 mm
  11. Nov0°-4°129 mm
  12. Dec-1°-6°159 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Þingvallaskógar.

Forest in Iceland

Þingvallaskógar is a forest in Iceland.

Seen from space, 1% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 100% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

274 species have been recorded around it: 173 plants, 26 fungi, 75 birds and 0 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Wood Crane's-bill, Water Avens and Garden angelica.

The best time to walk is in July.

Þingvellir01
Christian Bickel · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Þingvallaskógar seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1marked trails within 5 kmÞingvellir
  • 13picnic sites within 4 km
  • 1shelters and huts within 6 km
  • 8viewpoints within 5 kmÞingvellir, Öxarárfoss, Útsýnispallur við Hrafnagjá and 5 more
  • 2visitor centres within 6 kmÞingvellir Tourist Information Center, Gestastofa þjóðgarðsins á Þingvöllum
  • 22car parks within 3 km
  • 5campsites within 10 kmVatnskot, Nyrðri-Leirar, Fagrabrekka and 2 more
  • 1places to stay within 10 km
  • 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • named and notable trees within 6 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Þingvallaskógar.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas28 mountains within 25 km
Hrafnabjörg763 m · volcano · 5.8 kmKálfstindar824 m · 9.4 kmHvalfell852 m · 17 kmSkriða1,005 m · 20 kmSkjaldbreiður1,060 m · volcano · 22 kmHrómundartindur561 m · volcano · 23 kmHengill803 m · volcano · 24 kmGrensdalur24 km
Lakeyas7 lakes within 15 km
Þingvallavatn82 km² · 7.5 kmSandkluftavatn0.3 km² · 8.4 kmMjóavatn0.6 km² · 12 kmMyrkavatn0.6 km² · 13 kmSandvatn (lanaw sa Islandya, Höfuðborgarsvæði)0.2 km² · 13 kmKrókatjarnir0.2 km² · 14 kmStíflisdalsvatn1.3 km² · 14 km
Darkskyas3 dark-sky places within 30 km
HvalvatnBortle 2 · 15 kmSkjaldbreiðurBortle 2 · 22 kmHengillBortle 3 · 23 km
Viewyas1 viewpoints within 15 kmComing soon
Lögberg4.2 km
Cavernyas1 caves within 20 km
Laugarvatnshellar8.7 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Other forests nearby.

Þingvallaskógar

Iceland

  • 49Forestyas Score
  • 1%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 274Species

Heiðmörk

Iceland · 42 km

  • 48Forestyas Score
  • 15%Trees
  • 90%Wild
  • 345Species

See the guide

Reykjavík Botanic Garden

Iceland · 42 km

  • 48Forestyas Score
  • 14%Trees
  • 88%Wild
  • 222Species

See the guide

Akureyri Botanical Garden

Iceland · 210 km

  • 50Forestyas Score
  • 10%Trees
  • 93%Wild
  • 425Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q27009593) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species18,497 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Viewyas, Canyonyas, Cavernyas, Cascadyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.