Hólmavík

Hólmavík is a small village on the southern shore of Steingrímsfjörður, deep in the Westfjords. Despite its modest size — fewer than four hundred inhabitants — it draws curious visitors from around the world thanks to its extraordinary Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft (Galdrasýning á Ströndum), which explores Iceland’s dark history of seventeenth-century witch trials with equal measures of scholarship and eerie atmosphere.

The museum’s most notorious exhibit is the necropants — trousers allegedly made from a dead man’s skin, used in folk magic for attracting wealth. Beyond the macabre, Hólmavík is a genuine fishing community with a lovely harbour and access to the wild, uninhabited Strandir coast to the north.

Hólmavík lies on Route 61 and can be reached year-round, though winter driving in the Westfjords requires care. The village has a guesthouse, a petrol station, and basic amenities. Krossneslaug hot-spring pool is a two-hour drive further north along the Strandir coast.