When traveling around Iceland on horseback with Ishestar you are likely going to stay in a mountain hut. These are of great historical value to the Icelandic people, as they have served an important purpose for generations. Most of them were originally built to host and shelter farmers on their way through the highlands taking care of their sheep.
The farmers of Iceland let their sheep loose in the highlands for the summer for them to munch on the sparse but nutritious vegetation in the highlands before returning down to the lowlands to stay close their farmers for the winter. The farmers gather their sheep in the middle of September every year, a tradition that goes back generations.
This is where the huts play an important part. The weather of Iceland is unpredictable and a tent would not be enough to provide you shelter in an angry fall storm, so the huts are a necessity for survival. Some of the huts you might meet on your way through the highlands have been renovated and updated whereas others are true to the original style of how they were built and their use. Simple but enough.
You will experience how squeezing close together in the light from candles on the table to stay warm brings you a special feeling of going back to your roots as well as a unique sense of cohesion as a group. After a long day in the saddle, you will appreciate cuddling up to your bunk mate not having to worry about cold nights.
The beds usually consist of mattresses that are 150 cm wide and put in a bed frame that is up to 6 meters long. This means that you will sleep next to someone, but no worries, we will not take on the fully authentic experience of being 35 people in a hut with about 40 cm of mattress space per person. We can guarantee you at least 75 cm to yourself.
The sheep gatherings are of great importance to the Icelandic farmers who normally live a bit isolated from each other. At the sheep gatherings all the local farmers gather and work together during the day to get the sheep down from the mountains and then they party together in the evenings. This means that the huts are built to encourage presence, conversations and community which comes to show by the long tables stretching down the middle of the typical mountain hut.
At the table you will be invited into conversations, having a cup of coffee and indulging the delicious food the chef on the tour will prepare for you and your fellow riders. That is another luxury that you will get that the original users of the huts didn’t. After a long day in the saddle, they had to prepare their own food over a gas burner or ever over a fire outside, whereas you get to relax and at some huts even take a shower. Not all of them have been equipped with a shower, but that is just a part of the charm of visiting an Icelandic Mountain hut, but remember we are all in the situation together and this way of traveling and sleeping has been done for centuries.
