The Herring Era Museum, Maritime museum in Siglufjörður, Iceland
The Herring Era Museum is a fishing industry museum in Siglufjörður, spread across five buildings that display tools, photographs, and work items from the herring trade. The collection is housed in restored historic structures along the waterfront, including a former salting station with worker quarters.
Herring fishing peaked in Siglufjörður in the early 20th century, making the town one of the busiest fishing ports in Iceland at the time. When herring stocks collapsed in the late 1960s, many residents left and the abandoned buildings were later converted into the museum that opened in 1994.
The name of the museum points directly to the decades when herring fishing shaped daily life in this small fjord town. Inside the restored buildings, workers' quarters are arranged as they would have looked during the fishing seasons, with personal belongings still in place.
The museum is open year-round, but hours change between seasons, so it is worth checking before arriving. In summer the daylight lasts long and the waterfront location makes it easy to combine a visit with a walk along the harbour.
The Grána building contains original machinery from the 1950s that shows every step of the herring processing line, from the catch arriving to the finished product leaving the factory. The wear on the machines themselves tells you how many hours a day they once ran.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
