Piling up stones into cairns used to be a way to mark the way and avoid getting lost in old times in Iceland. Back then, people had no GPS, let alone smartphones, not even paper maps. Stone cairns were a useful way to mark the best route from point A to B. Viking settlers used to make them as landmarks on their expeditions.
Recently, local news have covered the tendency of some travelers to make stone cairns in Icelandic nature, not for the first time unfortunately. This has been a problem for years and has increased with the growing number of tourists visiting the country. The time when cairns were useful to mark the way is long past us. Nowadays, people are making them for fun or as a type of decoration, supposedly. But stone cairns are not welcome in Iceland nowadays, just like off-road driving, leaving trash behind or many other lasting marks by humans in the environment. But it can also be compared with throwing coins into geysers, placing locks on bridge fences and graffiti.
Why are cairns not welcome?
In many cases, people are moving stones around that have been in their place for ages in order to leave their mark on the landscape. A few years ago, an area in Þingvellir national park was closed after some visitors erected numerous cairns there. Iceland is not a theme park where people can just do as they please.
When stones are pulled up from e.g. a landscape otherwise covered with moss, that leaves a mark where the stone used to be and new moss can take decades to grow. People visit Iceland to see unspoilt nature, not stone piles from other travelers.
Old cairns may still be used for navigation by hikers in the highlands because phone signals are not reliable everywhere and batteries are not ever lasting. “Decorative” new cairns can mislead people who are lost in such cases and cause them danger.
If you come across an old cairn, please admire it and take a photo, but leave it as it is. Do not add stones, do not move stones, and never build new cairns. The best way to respect Iceland’s nature is to follow the “leave no trace” principle, take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.
