Herring Era Museum, Siglufjordur

For half a century Siglufjordur was one of the busiest herring ports in the North Atlantic, and when the stock collapsed in the late 1960s the town emptied. The museum occupies several restored buildings on the old quay: a salting station with barrels and gutting tables, a boarding house where the women who salted the fish slept several to a room, a boat house with vessels afloat inside it, and a factory of oil and meal machinery. It is unusually well done. Things are laid out as they were left, and in summer staff sometimes salt herring on the quay to music, the way it was worked.

What you actually see

• The salting station - barrels, knives and tables on the quay where the fish were packed.
• The boarding house - the cramped rooms and kitchens of the seasonal workers.
• The boat house - old fishing vessels floating inside the building.
• The factory machinery - the presses and boilers that turned herring into oil and meal.

When to go

This is a summer operation, with limited hours outside June to August and the salting demonstrations running only in the high season on set days. The drive north through the tunnels from Akureyri or Saudarkrokur is straightforward in summer and can be slow and dark in winter weather.

Honest expectations

It is a long way north for a museum alone, so it works best combined with the Trollaskagi coast road and the town itself. Several separate buildings mean a lot of stairs. The oil and meal exhibits smell, which is the point but not to everyone's taste. Winter opening is minimal and sometimes by arrangement only.

Nearby

The Trollaskagi coast road, Olafsfjordur and the tunnels toward Akureyri are close.