The historical Glaumbær Turf House in North-Iceland

Regína Hrönn Ragnarsdóttir

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As you might have noticed from my previous travel-blogs, then I adore turf houses in Iceland and hope you have not got enough of my passion for these interesting Icelandic houses ;) Whenever I travel around Iceland I seek out turf houses and turf churches, they are just so characteristic for my country.

Everybody lived in a turf house in Iceland, both rich and poor and there are still several turf houses in Iceland, most of which have been preserved.

There is a lovely historic turf house in Skagafjörður in North-Iceland. It is called Glaumbær farm and should not be missed while travelling in this area.

People lived in Glaumbær turf house until 1947. A farm has stood on this site since the settlement of Iceland in year 874 - give or take a few years. The present farmhouse consists of 13 buildings and the "newest" addition to the turf house was built in 1876-1879. The oldest parts of the turf house date back to the mid 18th century.

In 1947 Glaumbær was declared as a protected site and is now owned by the National Museum of Iceland. It has been run as a museum by the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum since 1952. If you visit the Glaumbær turf house and have a look inside you can see how life in Iceland was back in the 18th and 19th century.

Glaumbær is quite a historic farm as here lived Snorri Þorfinnsson and his parents in the 11th century (around 1010). Snorri is probably the first European to be born in America while his parents were on exploration there long before Columbus discovered America.

Snorri built the first church here at Glaumbær and is one of two men considered to be responsible for the Christianisation of Iceland. Snorri's mother, Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, was the widow of Þorsteinn, who was Erik the Red's son and the brother of Leif the Lucky, who discovered America.

Guðríður then married Þorfinnur karlsefni and had Snorri by him. Guðríður is considered the most-widely travelled woman in Iceland from the 11th century until the 20th century.

So one can see that some very well known characters in Icelandic history lived on Glaumbær farm. I have written about these people in another travel-blog.

There are also 2 timber houses on the museum ground, one is called Gilsstofa and the other one Áshús.

Gilsstofa contains the offices of the museum and a museum store and in Áshús there are exhibitions on housekeeping in the first decade of the 20th century.

Gilsstofa is a reconstruction of a house from 1849, which shows what a wooden sitting room was like in the middle of the 19th century. These kinds of houses were added to turf houses before wooden houses were built in the late 19th century. They could be moved between farms and Gilsstofa was moved 6 times.

Áshús was built in 1884-1886 and shows the building style that took over following the turf houses.

Viking ruins have been discovered at Glaumbær, some 150 metres from the current turf farm. A Viking age longhouse from the 10th-11th century was found as well as some other smaller structures.

For opening hours and admission fee check the Glaumbær farm website.

It is lovely visiting Glaumbær, just like stepping back in time, so I recomm.end stopping there and having a look around. There is a limit though to how many people can fit in a turf house at the same time and how much intrusion these old turf houses can handle, so let's treat them with respect.

Driving north on ring road 1, turn on road 75 by Varmahlíð in Skagafjörður. Coming from Varmahlíð, Glaumbær is on your right-hand side. Glaumbær turf farm is located at 65° 36,675'N, 19° 30,285'W.

To visit Glaumbær turf house you can rent a car in Reykjavík or go on a self-drive tour, f.ex.: