Surrounded by mighty cliffs and overlooking the ocean, the awe-inspiring mountain Vestrahorn stands 454 m tall on a headland situated 10 km east of Höfn in Hornafjörður in southeastern Iceland. Vestrahorn is one of the few mountains in Iceland composed almost exclusively of gabbro with occurrences of granophyre. 
Vestrahorn belongs to the mountain range outside of Skarðsdalur, which is on Iceland’s Natural Conservation Register. There, various interesting minerals and wildlife can be found : the gabbró-granophyre is about 6,6 million years old, and further west, seals abound on the reefs around Stokksnes Peninsula.

673A – SEPAC 2018
Vestrahorn

Vestrahorn is located at the border of Þorsteinn leggur and Hrollaugur Rögnvaldsson’s settlements. Hrollaugur was the son of the Earl of Møre in Norway and the brother of Ganger-Hrolf, also known as Rollo, who became the first ruler of Normandy. (it’s a small world!)

According to descriptions in several sagas and the Icelandic Book of Settlement, some of the first settlers to Iceland brought their öndvegissúlur, or high-seat pillars with them from Norway. High-seat pillars were a pair of wooden poles placed on each side of the high-seat — the place where the head of household would have sat in a Viking-period Scandinavian house. Once land was sighted, the high-seat pillars were thrown overboard and left to drift with the current. The place the pillars washed ashore indicated where a permanent farm would be established.

When Hrollaugur arrived to the land that would later become Iceland, he first landed his ship where Reykjavík is now – however, he found that his high-seat pillars had driven ashore at Vestrahorn where he later settled.

G57 – the 2018 SEPAC folder

The stamp will be available from September 13th.

Design: Borgar Hjörleifur Árnason
Photo: Ratnakorn Piyasirisorost
Printer: Cartor Security Printing
Process: Offset Litho
Stamp size: 50×28 mm
Sheet configuration: 10 stamps
Paper: 247 gsm self-adhesive
Price: 50g to Europe (225 ISK)
Total issued: 50.000

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