Three famous rocks in Norway

Preikestolen, Kjeragbolten and Trolltunga. A flat plateau, a wedged boulder and a jutting shelf. They are photographed more than anything else in the country and they are three completely different pieces of geology doing the same job.

PreikestolenPlateau, 604 m above the fjord

Plateau sizeRoughly 25 by 25 m

KjeragboltenBoulder of about 5 cubic metres

Drop below the boulderSome 984 m

TrolltungaA rock shelf, 20–28 km walk in

Barriers at any of themNone

Preikestolen, the pulpit

A granite plateau roughly 25 by 25 metres and almost flat, standing 604 metres above the Lysefjord. It formed at the end of the last ice age when glacial ice steepened the valley wall and frost levered angular blocks off the face; the flat top survived because that rock resisted better than what fell away. The name means the pulpit and dates from around 1900, as told on the name page. Locally it was Hyvlatånnå, the plane blade, which describes it better.

Kjeragbolten, the wedged boulder

A block of about five cubic metres jammed in a crevice on Kjerag, above a drop of some 984 metres. You step onto it, with no gear and no rope, and there is nothing keeping you there but your own balance and the fact that the boulder has not moved. There are no recorded deaths from falling off the boulder itself, which surprises people. Kjerag does have serious accidents most years, and they come from BASE jumping rather than from walkers. The hike in is harder than Preikestolen: roughly 9.8 kilometres, about 460 metres of climbing, 6 to 8 hours, three steep climbs and no warm-up.

Trolltunga, the tongue

A thin shelf of rock sticking out horizontally over a lake, in Hordaland. What makes it famous is the shape; what makes it difficult is the approach, 20 kilometres round trip from the upper car park or 28 from the lower, and 7 to 12 hours of walking. It is a full mountain day and it punishes people who treat it as a photo stop.

What they have in common

Ice, and no railings. All three are glacial landforms in hard rock, all three are reached on foot with no technical skill, and none of them has a barrier, a queue marshal or a safety line. Two of the three are in Rogaland and can be reached from Stavanger; the comparison of the two is on Preikestolen against Kjerag, and the walks themselves are set out on the top hikes page.

If the reason you are reading this is nerve rather than logistics, the scariest hikes page separates the two things that get confused: how hard a walk is, and how much a slip would cost.

Local tip

Of the three, Preikestolen is the one you can see properly without walking to it: the Lysefjord cruise passes directly underneath the cliff. Neither of the others has an equivalent, which is worth knowing if somebody in the party is not walking.

What there is to book

The trail is free and there is no ticket for it. What is bookable is the Lysefjord cruise, which passes under the cliff and involves no walking at all, and the guided hikes that drive you out from Stavanger. Everything is listed on the bookings page.

Check dates & book

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Frequently asked questions

What are three famous rocks in Norway?

Preikestolen, Kjeragbolten and Trolltunga: a flat plateau, a wedged boulder and a jutting shelf.

Has anyone fallen off Kjeragbolten?

There are no recorded deaths from falling off the boulder itself. The serious accidents at Kjerag involve BASE jumping.

Which one can you see without hiking?

Preikestolen, from the water. The Lysefjord cruise passes 604 metres below the plateau.