We first visited a quiet, sunny Thingvellir in the summer of 2013, as a standard one-hour stop off on the aforementioned Golden Circle tour from Reykjavik, which also took in Gullfoss, Strokkur Geyser and some snowmobiling. The previous reviews are correct, in that a tour stop off didn’t bring the depth that the site otherwise could being a visitor. Yes, we got the magnificent backdrop and the importance and age of the parliament and its link with the sagas - what UNESCO terms “a unique reflection of medieval Norse/Germanic culture”. We walked the boardwalks and took in the cliff-top view from the unvisited visitor centre. But we have no memory of agricultural or parliamentary remains (outside of the Logberg) and to be honest, I don’t remember even reading any information boards at all! Always open and free to enter (which is not always Iceland’s strong point), it is a unique site that warrants more time than a standard tour can give.

A subsequent Silfra snorkelling trip was made several years later, which is reviewed in the tentative listing for the extension of the WHS.