Eyrarbakki: Explore coastal history and historic houses

Eyrarbakki combines a well-preserved historic townscape with a maritime past. When choosing a hotel for your stay, these two themes can guide your travel plans: protected buildings and museums tell stories of architecture, everyday life and seafaring, while paths offer insights into the coastal landscape. This makes it easy to tailor your stay to your interests in cultural history, nature, or both.

Historic townscape and protected buildings

Eyrarbakki’s protected historic settlement and buildings area includes one of Iceland’s most complete and cohesive settlements of workers’ houses from around and after 1900. Many preserved houses dating from 1890 to 1920 also shape the town. A visit can give you the impression of travelling about a hundred years back in time.

The three protected buildings in the historic area include Húsið and Eyrarbakkakirkja. Húsið is a historic merchant’s house, built in 1765. The church’s history includes its altarpiece, painted by Queen Louise of Denmark. Both buildings add different dimensions to the picture of the protected town centre: the merchant’s house represents the history of trade, while the church features a notable work of religious art.

Museums spanning merchant life and seafaring

Húsið also explores the domestic life of a merchant family in the 19th century. The presentation lies somewhere between exhibition and reconstruction, inviting visitors to view the family’s world as a historical interpretation. At Kirkjubær, another exhibition focuses on everyday life and social changes in the region from 1920 to 1940. Together, these themes offer different perspectives in time: from a 19th-century merchant household to social changes in the first half of the 20th century.

The Eyrarbakki Maritime Museum tells the story of the seafarers on Iceland’s south coast, who went out to sea every day in rowing boats. The largest exhibit is Farsæll, a twelve-oared rowing boat built in 1915. Another special detail of a visit: at the museum, visitors may handle various items from an old sailor’s sea chest. A large historic boat and the chance to interact directly with smaller objects are presented side by side.

Coastal paths and nature in the surrounding region

Fjörustígurinn is a four-kilometre path between Stokkseyri and Eyrarbakki. It offers coastal views and a chance to enjoy nature, and can be used for walking and cycling. As a shorter, precisely measured route, it is easily distinguished from the regional South Coast Lighthouse Trail: this is just under 50 kilometres long and runs from Selvogsviti Lighthouse to Knarrarósviti Lighthouse. Travellers can drive, hike, run or cycle along the regional trail, which passes through Eyrarbakki, among other places.

The surrounding area also offers a different perspective on the landscape. Northwest of Eyrarbakki, a path leads through the Hallskot recreational forest into the Flói Bird Protection Area. This is an important breeding area, particularly for wetland birds, and has been designated an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. There are several different themes to choose from: Eyrarbakki’s historic townscape and museums, a four-kilometre path between two towns, as well as the broader regional route and the nearby bird protection area. When choosing a hotel, you can consider whether architecture and seafaring history, or paths and nature, will be the focus of your trip.

Discover more destinations: Úlfljótsvatn, Flúdir, Háfur, Vík Í Mýrdal, Hella, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Keldur, Villingaholt.

For the broader travel overview: Sudurland.