Iceland Herring Era Museum

The town of Siglufjördur lies on the north coast of Iceland, 260 km from Reykjavik. Its population now numbers just over 1,200, but had declined from a total of more than 3,000 in the 1950s as a result of the disappearance of the herring from Icelandic waters. The first fish meal factory in Iceland was supposedly established in Siglufjördur in 1910. The Herring Era Museum illustrates the importance of the herring industry in the early and mid-20th century, and consists of three principal buildings, constructed or re-erected in 2003-04. The boathouse has interactive displays showing the town busy harbour in the 1950s, and a dock within the building accommodates nine fishing vessels of various sizes built from the 1930s onwards. The Grána building is a factory of the 1930s in which meal and oil were produced from herring. Róaldsbrakki is the oldest building, a Norwegian herring station built in 1907 in which dozens of young women were once employed salting herring for export. Since the disappearance of the herring in the 1960s some of the factories in Siglufjördur have been demolished but a few still operate, processing other species of fish.

Iceland Herring Era Museum
Sildarminjasafn Islands
Snorragata 15
580 Fjallabyggd-Siglufjördur
Iceland
+354 (0) 467 - 1604
Homepage