Preservation of Glaumbær
The old farmhouse at Glaumbær is a protected building and part of the National Museum of Iceland’s Historic Building Collection.
A key moment in the preservation of Glaumbær came in 1938, when Mark Watson (1906–1979) donated £200 to support its conservation. The farm was officially declared protected in 1947, and that same year, the last residents moved out.
- Click here to read more about Mark Watson and his role in preserving Glaumbær.
In 1948, the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum was founded and, through an agreement with the National Museum of Iceland, was granted use of the farmhouse for its operations. The museum’s main exhibition, Life in Turf Houses in the 19th Century, was officially opened in the old farmhouse on June 15, 1952.
Age of the Farm
The Glaumbær farmstead has likely stood on the same farm mound for about a thousand years. Over time, the farm buildings have changed in size, style, and placement on the mound, depending on the resources and needs of the residents. As a result, the buildings vary in age. The newest structures, Norðurskemma and Suðurstofa, date from 1879, while the kitchen and pantry go back to the mid-18th century.
According to the Sagas, Snorri Þorfinnsson, son of Þorfinnur Karlsefni and Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, built the first church at Glaumbær around the year 1000. The exact location of the church remains unknown. However, in 2002, remains of 11th-century buildings were discovered in the field east of the farm mound. These may represent the original Glaumbær settlement, and it's possible that the church remains lie nearby.
- Click here to read more about Guðríður and Snorri.
Layout and Building Materials
Glaumbær is a corridor-style turf farmhouse of the largest kind, consisting of thirteen interconnected buildings and covering approximately 730 square meters.
Six of the buildings face the farmyard with their gable ends and are accessible directly from the yard - these are known as front houses. The remaining nine buildings are back houses, all connected by an interior passageway that runs from the main entrance through the entire complex to the baðstofa (communal living room) at the far end.
The back entrance, used by the household, is located in one of the back houses. Just southwest of this entrance lies a large mound, which is the old ash heap where waste from the farm was dumped for several hundred years.
Due to the scarcity of stone on Glaumbær’s land, turf was the primary building material, and turf-cutting conditions in the area are excellent. It is likely that nowhere else in the world has turf been used so extensively in a building of this size.
The walls are constructed using different types of turf: clamped blocks, blocks, and strips. Driftwood and imported timber were used for the framing and interior paneling.
- Click here to read more about the building materials and craftsmanship used in the house.
