Hraun is the outermost farm 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 eastern

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 ...

. The outermost farm in western Skagafjörður county, on the tip of the

Skagi Skagi is the name of the peninsula between Húnaflói and Skagafjörður, which derives its name from Skagi. There used to be three municipalities in Skagi; two were and , now named Húnabyggð and Skagaströnd, on the western side, which bel ...

peninsula is also called Hraun, which is Icelandic for "lava," but its name is in the singular, while the Hraun in Fljót is plural (note: is the same in both the singular and plural in two of Icelandic's four

grammatical cases A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nominal ...

). The farm is at a similar northern latitude, but the Hraun on the Skagi peninsula is a little more north.

Geography

From Hraun, there are good views of Fljót and Skagafjörður. The farm is on a slope overlooking Miklavatn lake and a long

isthmus An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea count ...

called between the lake and the sea from which people used to fish. There is an inlet called north of where a

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...

turned up on and was killed in 1870. The major road to

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 ...

went, and still goes, by Hraun—previously up Hraunadalur valley through Siglufjarðarskarð—but now through Alemenningar road and

Strákagöng Strákagöng (, ) is a tunnel in 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 pol ...

tunnel; it used to be heavily trafficked. In the late 19th century, a clothing store was established there, which later relocated to Haganesvík. Since the land offered good access to fishing in Miklavatn and a nearby

eider duck The eiders () are large Mergini, seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks and some other ducks and geese are used to fill pillow ...

nesting site, there was a large farm in Hraun for a long time. One of the most well-known of Hraun's farmers in the last century was (1841–1910), member of parliament and merchant. He was married three times and had many children. He referred to his descendants as the "Hraun Clan".

References

{{coord, 66.0972, -19.0767, type:landmark_region:IS, display=title Skagafjörður Farms in Iceland