is a group of villages, and formerly a small

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

, in the

Fljót Fljót is the northernmost district on the east side of Skagafjörður, Iceland. It is divided into Eastern and Western and extends from river in the west to the county's border with Eyjafjörður county in the east. In the north of , the bou ...

district of

Skagafjörður Skagafjörður () is a deep fjord and its valley in northern Iceland. Location Skagafjörður, the fjord, is about 40 km long and 15 km wide, situated between Tröllaskagi to the east and the Skagi, Skagi Peninsula to the west. Ther ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

History

In centuries past, was a popular fishing area, not the least for shark, and there were also workman's cottages there for a long time. In 1897, became a licensed

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

and, in 1901, , a farmer from Hraun, relocated his shop there after working out of Hraun since 1879. He later became the manager of the trading company. The owners of multiple shops merged their businesses and ran the market collectively until 1922. From 1919 onward, a cooperative, (the Fljót Co-op), which operated in , ran the market until the 1970s. The Fljót co-op later merged with , the Skagafjörður Co-op, which ran the market from then on. also had a slaughterhouse and a freezing facility. The harbor used to be precarious because it was open to the ocean, but a concrete dock was built in 1951. The dock was subsequently destroyed in a terrible storm. For a long time, small fishing vessels operated out of , but more recently, boats have been set up and stored there and, in the spring and summer, boats are launched to fish for

lumpfish The Cyclopteridae are a family of marine fishes, commonly known as lumpsuckers or lumpfish, in the order Scorpaeniformes. They are found in the cold waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, and North Pacific oceans. The greatest number of species ar ...

, and for coastal fishing from

Siglufjörður Siglufjörður () is a small fishing town in a narrow fjord with the same name on the northern coast of Iceland. The population in 2011 was 1,206; the town has been shrinking in size since the 1950s when the town reached its peak of 3,000 inhabit ...

. had a mail service and

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

, as well as a community center. 's decline began when the road was built to its current location, which turned into an out-of-the-way place. The market was moved to Ketilás not long after. Now there are only a few residences remaining in , most of them summer homes.

References

{{Authority control Skagafjörður Populated places in Northwestern Region (Iceland)