The Herring Era Museum
North Iceland · Fishing heritage
Discover the fishing industry and harbour history of Siglufjörður.
- 1 hr 15 min visit
- 64 km from Akureyri as the crow flies
When herring shaped a town
Siglufjörður’s museum buildings preserve the work, lodging and machinery behind the herring industry.
The herring industry supported a large part of Iceland’s twentieth-century economy, and Siglufjörður offers a close view of what that meant on shore. At the Herring Era Museum, Róaldsbrakki is a former Norwegian herring station from 1907, including rooms used by women who stayed for the summer work.
Other buildings explain the processing of fish into meal and oil, and recreate a harbor with its boats alongside. Together they turn a broad economic story into spaces people occupied and tools they worked with. Read this before walking the town’s waterfront: its industrial history is about temporary workers and daily routines as well as the boats that went to sea.
Sources: northiceland.is
