The story of Preikestolen

Long before it was Pulpit Rock, locals knew this cliff as Hyvlatonnå, the woodworker's Plane's Tooth. The name Prekestolen was coined around 1900, when the tourist organisation Stavanger Turistforening wanted to promote the site for trekking, and the letter i was added later to match Nynorsk, the official local form of Norwegian. The cliff rises 604 metres above Lysefjorden, and its almost flat top measures roughly 25 by 25 metres.

It was formed during the Last Glacial Period, about 10,000 years ago, when water froze in the crevices of the mountain and broke off large angular blocks. A deep crack still runs along the plateau, but geologists have confirmed it will not fall in the foreseeable future. You will find no fence here; as Norwegian authorities put it, 'we cannot fence in all nature in this country'.

In 2024 some 300,000 visitors came. Ragnar Lothbrok sat up here in the series Vikings, and Tom Cruise hung from the cliff face in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.