Safnahúsið Á Húsavík

Lonely Planet review

The Safnahúsið Á Húsavík is one of the best local museums you'll find in Iceland. The museum occupies the 1st and 3rd floor of the building (the town library is on the 2nd floor) and a nearby annexe. The natural-history display has the usual array of stuffed animals, including arctic foxes, a frightening-looking hooded seal, and a stuffed polar bear, which was welcomed to Grímsey in 1969 with both barrels of a gun.

The folk history exhibits cover everything from a re-creation of an early farmhouse, to photographic archives, paintings, traditional costumes, a healthy collection of 16th-century weapons, and historic books - including a copy of a Bible printed in 1584. There's also a carefully catalogued collection of 100,000 beer-bottle labels from around the world. Nearby, the new annexe houses an excellent maritime museum, with displays of preserved fishing boats, a pungent fish-drying shed, and lots of memorabilia and displays relating to the fishing industry.