Háafell Goat Farm: Meeting Iceland’s Rarest Farm Animal

The Icelandic goat is one of the rarest farm animals in the world, and for most of the last century it was one whisker from vanishing altogether. At Háafell, a working farm in the Hvítársíða valley of West Iceland, you can walk among the animals that pulled the breed back from the edge. It sits about 30 minutes from the Hvítá Inn, which makes it an easy morning out on the classic Borgarfjörður circuit.

The breed that nearly disappeared

The Icelandic goat is a heritage breed brought over during the Settlement more than a thousand years ago, and it has stayed genetically isolated ever since. By the late 20th century the total population had fallen to under 100 animals, close enough to extinction that a single bad winter could have ended it. Conservation breeding brought it back: there were a few hundred goats in the early 2000s, and by 2022 the count had recovered to roughly 1,400. It is still officially at risk, and the Icelandic goat is the only farm animal the government sponsors specifically to keep it alive.

What Háafell is and why it matters

Jóhanna Bergmann Þorvaldsdóttir and her husband took over Háafell in 1989 and began breeding Icelandic goats to prevent the breed’s collapse. Over the years the farm built up one of the largest conservation herds in the country and later opened to visitors as the Icelandic Goat Centre. The goats here are used to people and genuinely friendly, so a visit is less a zoo and more a wander through the paddock while you hear the survival story firsthand.

There is a screen-fame footnote too. Goats from Háafell were used in Game of Thrones: a Háafell goat named Casanova played the animal snatched by the dragon Drogon in season four (the dragon was CGI, and the goat was unharmed). It is the detail families tend to remember on the drive home.

Planning your visit

The centre keeps a short summer season, so timing matters. There is a small farm shop selling goat-milk soaps, creams and skin products alongside cheese, meat and handcrafts made on site.

• Getting there: about a 30-minute drive from the Hvítá Inn, heading up road 523 into Hvítársíða.
• Season and hours: open roughly June 1 to August 31, 11:00 to 18:00, and by arrangement outside those dates. There is an admission fee for the goat enclosure. Check before you go, as a small farm’s hours can change.
• How long to allow: about an hour to meet the goats and browse the shop; longer if you have children who won’t leave.
• What to bring: sturdy shoes and a windproof layer (it is a hillside farm), plus cash or a card for the shop.

Where to Stay

The The Hvítá Inn sits on the bank of the Hvítá river at Hvítárbakki, right in the middle of the Borgarfjörður valleys, which puts Háafell within an easy half-hour drive up the same river system. That central position lets you pair the goat farm with the region’s waterfalls and hot springs in a single relaxed day rather than backtracking to Reykjavík. Book direct on Ourhotels.is for the best rate.

Photo: Helgi Halldórsson from Reykjavík, Iceland via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.