Icelandic Emigration Center

Between the 1870s and the First World War something like a fifth of Iceland's population left for Canada and the United States, driven by hard winters, the ash from Askja in 1875 and land that could not support the people on it. Most went to Manitoba, where the settlement they founded on Lake Winnipeg was known as New Iceland. The centre at Hofsos occupies restored warehouse buildings by the harbour and sets out why people went, how they travelled and what happened to them, with exhibitions on the Manitoba settlement. It also runs a genealogical service, and a steady proportion of visitors are North Americans tracing families back to specific farms.

What you actually see

• A fifth of the country leaving - the emigration of the 1870s onward.
• New Iceland in Manitoba - the settlement most of them founded.
• Restored harbour warehouses - the buildings the museum occupies.
• A genealogy service - used by descendants tracing farms.

When to go

June to August; hours are limited outside summer. Two to three hours.

Honest expectations

Open seasonally, so a winter trip will find doors shut. Exhibitions are text and photograph heavy. Hofsos is small with limited services. The swimming pool above the harbour is the other reason people stop.

Nearby

Grafarkirkja is north; Saudarkrokur and Glaumbaer are south.