In Reykjavik, Iceland, there is a haunted house called Höfði. According to local legend it is haunted by the ghost of a woman who poisoned herself.
One of the most haunted houses in Iceland is Höfði. For the outside world it is perhaps best known for being the location where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met up to talk about ending the cold war in 1986. So it is a pretty well known house in political history, but there is something else living in the house at night.
For the locals the Höfði house was a well known house long before that meeting. The house in Jugendstil was built in 1909 for the French consul Jean-Paul Brillouin at Félagstún and has since been in the hands of powerful and rich people. But none of them have stayed for a very long time.
In the memoirs of one of the people living there in the early days tells that the Höfði house is haunted by a young woman. She either drowned or died by suicide, were the latter is the most often told one.
One of the people living in the house with his family was an entrepreneur as well as a poet named Einar Benediktsson. He was the one that named the house when he moved in in 1914 and had his own theory about who the ghost was.
He claimed that the ghost was of a woman named Sólborg Jónsdóttir. Benediktsson was once a judge on a famous assault case and when Sólborg Jónsdóttir heard the verdict she poisoned herself and died. According to Benediktsson, he always had to keep the lights on at night as she would appear to him during the night, still distraught over the verdict and haunt Höfði, even to this day.
Höfði house: According to the legend, the ghost haunting the house is Sólborg Jónsdóttir, a woman that may or may not were poisoned inside of it.
The haunting in the house got so bad that John Greenway that lived in the house in 1952 asked to be moved, that the house should be sold and the British consulate should move elsewhere. He was afraid of what he called: ‘Bumps in the night’, and even filed a special permission from the Foreign office to get out of there as quickly as possible.
The same year Höfði was sold back to the Icelandic government and the official statement by the Foreign Ministry was: “We do not confirm or deny that the Hofdi has a ghost.”
On Stokksnes Beach in Iceland you can sometimes see the ghost of a drowned viking coming up from the ocean to haunt the black beach.
Iceland, a land of breathtaking natural beauty and stark contrasts, has seeped into its ghost stories and folklore. From ancient sagas to modern-day tales, the whispers of the past echo through the rugged terrain and hauntingly beautiful vistas.
Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Iceland
As daylight fades and the auroras dance in the night sky, the veil between the living and the dead grows thin, inviting seekers of the unknown to explore the eerie narratives woven into the very fabric of this enchanting island. Join us as we delve into the ghostly stories that haunt the land of fire and ice.
The Black Sand of Stokksnes Beach
In the southeast parts of Iceland you can find one of the most beautiful and mysterious beaches there is. Black sand on Stokksnes Beach stretches from the cold and wild ocean water to the dark and snow covered mountains rising up from the ocean.
The area around Stokksnes Beach was the place for the first settlers on Iceland dating back to the 9th century when the viking came from Scandinavia to find new land. Although today there is nothing more than an abandoned film set for a viking village left nearby.
Although Stokksnes Beach is breathtakingly beautiful, the beach has also seen its fair share of horrible sights and several strange and paranormal rumors travel up and down the black beaches. Perhaps not so strange in this magical looking landscape perfect to behold the Northern Lights.
Haunted Legends at Stokksnes Beach
According to local legend, Stokksnes Beach is the place where most shipwrecks have happened in Iceland and many dead and drowned have washed ashore on these beaches.
For this reason the locals think Stokksnes Beach is haunted. People that have visited the beach tell of seeing stuff like wet footprints leading from the sea when there has not been a single soul to have made them.
Voices that are carried by the wind and an ever presence of someone watching are also some of the haunted rumors that come from this beach.
According to some there is a giant and hairy viking man that walks out of the ocean at night, dripping wet rising from his watery grave to haunt the beach.
No place is free from a haunting on Iceland, not even the official house for the president known as Bessastadir were the ghost of a woman named Apollonia Schwartzkopf haunts the house after maybe have been the victim of poison.
Believing in ghost is nothing special or weird in Iceland. In fact, surveys shows that at least ten percent believes in the hidden people, otherwise known as elfs or Huldufólk. And no one is immune, not even the president of the country.
In the official residence of the president of Iceland at Bessastadir in Álftanes not long from Reykjavík, there is allegedly a ghost of a woman called Apollonia Schwartzkopf haunting the house, even to this day.
Apollonia Schwartzkopf was a powerful and rich Norwegian woman who came to Iceland in 1722 after suing the governour of Iceland at the time called Niels Furhman for fraud after he tried to break his promise to marry her after being engaged for 14 years. At the time Iceland was a colony under the Danish crown.
The Danish man working as the governor on Iceland was condemned and had to have Apollonia Schwartzkopf staying with him at Bessastadir until she died under mysterious circumstances.
Apollonia Schwartzkopf then came to Iceland and the wonderful house of Bessastadir to have Niels Furhman fulfill his promises as her husband as well as making him pay huge expenses for her as she was now lawfully his wife. But was it worth it though?
Poisoned by her Mother In Law?
Many sources of this story states that Apollonia died of a broken heart, although when looking at the details doesn’t seem very likely. The marriage with Niels Furhman at Bessastadir was not a happy one though, and according to all accounts they weren’t a good match in the long run. Sources say they didn’t sleep in the same bed or even dine at the same table together. She started to think that the mother in law was planning to poison her, something she confided in a man named Cornelius Wulff.
Apollonia Schwartzkopf died not long after though under strange circumstances of an unknown disease after she ate some porridge she herself claimed to be poisonous on Pentecost day, or on 20. June in 1725 in some sources. Her Danish mother in law Karen Holm also lived with them, and it was believed that she had killed Apollonia Schwartzkopf with poison, although nothing was proven during the trial.
Haunting the President at Bessastadir
The ghost at Bessastadir started to gain some attention when the influential people living in the house started speaking about her.
“I hear her at night, pacing the halls and going from room to room. Sometimes she comes up the stairs and walks in the corridors outside my room. And I say to her: ‘Please, Apollonia dear, be very welcome,’ ” the former president of Iceland and the world’s first elected female president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, regularly told her visitors when they came to Bessastadir.
One of the more well known Icelandic ghost stories that are told over the cold and desolate island, is the haunted hut in the middle of nowhere. Here the ghost of a lady in gray is haunting the place. This is the story of Hvítárnes hut, one of the most haunted places in Iceland.
South on the Island of Iceland a small hut is placed on a field in the middle of nowhere. From it you can look far into the distance in every direction, nature, beautiful nature, lonesome nature that in the winter turns pitch black. And the legends surrounding the Hvítárnes hut, is of the paranormal sort.
The Icelandic Touring Association built the lodge in 1930 for a place off the road were one could be in peace in the southern highlands of Iceland. The turf roofed hut is protected by Icelandic law because of its old age and uniqueness. The hut is the oldest mountain hut owned and operated by the Ferðafélag Íslands, The Iceland Touring Association.
The hut, the name of it meaning white is far from everything else and the closest neighbour to the hut is some old farm ruins in the distance. Farming was a way of living here in the old days, although, no one lives there all year today, and the only true neighbours are the echos from the surrounding mountains.
The Haunted Hut In solitude: Hvítárnes hut in the wild is one of the most well known icelandic ghost stories. There are stories about a woman haunting the little hut in the wilderness and many of the guests have felt her presence.
To the north towers Iceland’s second largest glacier, Langjökull over the horizon, always reminding the passing summer there is a cold winter after it that will take over the landscape. In the winter, storms can havock the highlands for days, making the area harsh in the winter, and green in the brief summer.
The Most Haunted Place in Iceland
Today it’s those fond of nature and solitude that are drawn to this place, to Hvítárnes hut. The hut has two floors and room to 30 persons in bunk beds with a warden watching the place during the summer months. The kitchen is narrow, but has running cold water and a gas oven and the toilet is outside. In other words, the Hvítárnes hut is a place for people seeking something simpler. Although, perhaps the rumours and legends of ghosts are not really a part of that simple life.
Hvítárnes hut is said to be one of the most haunted places in Iceland, and that is saying something for a country so steeped in the supernatural ways and legends. Since Hvítárnes hut was built, the hut has had complaints about something lurking, howling as the winter storms outside, although no one can really pinpoint exactly where or from who the howling is coming from.
Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories in haunted houses from all over the world
Story goes that when guests arrive late at night, maybe coming down from hiking the ancient Kjölur hiking trail, they have vividly seen the face of a woman inside the hut through the window, expecting to meet her when entering. But once inside, there is no one but the gathering dust and coldness of solitude. However, as the short days and long nights in Hvítárnes hut passes, the ghost of this female present won’t leave the guests alone.
The Ghost of the Woman in the Window
According to the stories, the ghost of this mysterious woman you can see through the window, is refusing the guests to get a good night sleep after a long day in the wilderness and she is persistent in making her presence become known for the guests.
What she does varies, but it is often during their sleep they can feel her presence. She is been known to almost sit on top of people chests, pressing them down so that they are unable to breathe as well as being haunted by horrible nightmares.
Sometimes she even kicks them out of the many bunk beds they were assigned to. There are particular male guests that have been tormented, some even driven out from the warm hut out in the freezing cold because of the fear of what the ghost of the woman are capable of.
Read Also: Check out ghost stories from haunted hotels from all over the world you can check in to.
There is especially this one bed in the hut that are rumoured to be the most haunted one, and if you are so unlucky to be placed on it, try to move or accept that you might not get a good nights sleep. According to the stories no one are able to get a good rest on the bed and it’s nicknamed the ‘ghost bunk’ or ‘her bed’. The bed is placed on the opposite way than the rest of the beds by the door, so it’s easy to see if you got the short end of the stick.
The Ghost in the Window: According to many of the guests staying at the hut, they claim to have seen a woman in the window. Many also reports of having their sleep disturbed by something paranormal. Who can she be, is there really a ghost haunting this place?
In all lodges with a long history as this and as many guests passing by, there must be a guest book. Guest Books are meant to leave nice messages about your stay, how the weather was, and how the days went by in the little hut. And in this one, countless of frightened visitors have scribble down how they slept in their car instead, or didn’t get a single minute of sleep because of the hauntings. Someone just scribbling down the word: Ghost. This is a very old entry as well, and it shows that the hut has been deemed haunted for a very long time.
Who is the Ghost Haunting Hvítárnes Hut
There are several theories of who this girl can be. The building was built for travellers, and no one ever lived in the hut. Perhaps it is a lost traveller that disappeared a long time ago, trying to seek shelter. Perhaps there is something about the ruins of the farm that can shed some light of this?
Just a stone throw away from the hut there have been discovered traces of the ruins of a village, at least settlements called Tjarnarkot. Could the ghost be from this time? It is said to have been inhabited as soon as Iceland was discovered, but after Hekla, the volcano erupted around 1104, the place was deserted. Was it before this? Was it after? Was it ever?
There are many theories of who she could be, and they are almost all linked to the farm ruins nearby. Some claim that there was a girl working for the farmer and his wife once upon a time. The farmer tried to sleep with the girl once, but she refused him. Angered by her refusal, he locked her outside in a snowstorm, which around these parts can rage for days. She died in the snowstorm. But the farmer didn’t live long after as his wife killed him to avenge the poor girl that was under their care.
A Country of Fairy Tales: Iceland is a highly superstitious country. Here is a little cottage made for the fairies they believe lives on the island. There are plenty of places were they think these supernatural creatures lives, and they even have the modern infrastructure like making roads go around so not to disturb them.
Another theory of what happened is that she was the farmers wife, and her husband cut of her arm and drowned her in a lake nearby. Another is that she died after being left by him while pregnant. Classic tales of female ghosts in these icelandic ghost stories. All trying to explain why she mostly goes after male guests.
Whoever she is, she refuses to leave. In 1996, there was a priest named Björn H. Jónsson that blessed the hut, but to no avail, she won’t leave Hvítárnes hut. Books, podcasts, the news and paranormal researchers of icelandic ghost stories have tried and failed to find her identity or proof of her existence for years. And she is not likely to be leaving anytime soon. She has been her long before the guests started arriving at the hut, and she will be staying long after they have gone.
The Ghost of Leirubakki is an Icelandic ghost story about the ghosts of some shipwrecked sailors from Denmark haunting the coast of Iceland.
Nothing darker than the depth of the sea, nothing more cold than the north. The northern shores, the coldest, the darkest. This coldness is something so many ships, so many sailors must have experienced as the bottom of the ocean is now littered with the remains of the drowned ones. There is always the fear, even today of the depth of the ocean, especially on these treacherous waters.
The story begins with a sinking ship near the coast of Iceland, but the haunting travelled with the unfortunate people that disturbed their graves. While the legend of the ghosts and the supernatural are treated just like that, a legend, a myth, the events surrounding it all true.
The Shipwreck on the Shore
A Danish ship named Gothenborg, sank in the 1700s. Luckily all the 170 people from the shipwreck survived and was rescued by the local people of Iceland. Remember that at this time, Iceland was a colony of Denmark, and there was often bad blood between the people.
And sadly, the problems of the survivors were far from done. Their ship was sunk and their supplies gone. The survivors had no possible way of getting home anytime soon as a whole cold ocean parted them from their home country. They had to rely on the kindness of the local farmers that lived there to keep them alive until they found a way to get back.
However, there was not enough food for them all as the country is weathered and not always so kind to its people. Some of the shipwrecked sailors ended with dying of starvation, among them the cook of the ship. A suffering that takes time.
The Ghosts Travels to Leirubakki
Here the legend mixes with the factual events. Almost a century later, two men came over the grave to the cook. Something must have happened, because the story goes, they rose him from the dead. The men ran over the cemetery, followed by the ghost. He started to haunt the one man and did so until his death. Even then the man moved to the place called Leirubakki the ghost wouldn’t leave him alone, further in to the country, further from his home, away from the coast. That is why today the ghost is called The Ghost of Leirubakki.
It wasn’t as the ghost hurt the man or his family. But it stalked them wherever they went. This wasn’t a friendly ghost either as he acted out with some poltergeist activity as well. Some of the stories tells that the ghost ripped the roof of a barn one time. It is well known that he scared the horses all the time and claims of the ghost roaming the bare hills of Iceland still stands.
One thing is sure, the ghost never saw his home in Denmark ever again.
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
