Northwestern Region

Introduction

The Northwestern Region (Norðurland vestra) covers the Skagafjörður and Húnaþing districts — an agricultural heartland known for Icelandic horse breeding, Viking-age history, and the Tröllaskagi (Troll Peninsula) coast road. Less visited than the northeast or south, it offers some of the most dramatic coastal driving on the Ring Road and a genuine sense of rural Iceland that the more popular regions have partly lost to tourism.

Overview

Skagafjörður is the centre of Icelandic horse culture — more horses than people live in the valley, and multi-day riding tours through highland pastures are a regional specialty available nowhere else in Iceland at this quality. The Troll Peninsula coast road (Route 76, between Siglufjörður and Ólafsfjörður via Dalvík) is one of Iceland's most spectacular drives: single-lane tunnels bored through headlands, avalanche barriers, fjord-edge switchbacks, and views across to the island of Hrísey and the Greenland Sea. Siglufjörður — once the herring capital of the North Atlantic, where a single summer's catch could determine the national economy — has the outstanding Herring Era Museum (three restored harbour buildings tracing the boom and bust) and a revived harbour-town atmosphere with good restaurants and a microbrewery. Hofsós has a geothermally heated infinity pool perched on the cliff edge overlooking Skagafjörður fjord — one of the best swimming pool settings in Iceland, and that is a high bar. Hólar, in the Hjaltadalur valley, was the northern bishopric of Iceland for 700 years and retains a tiny cathedral and an equestrian college. Blönduós and Sauðárkrókur are service towns on the Ring Road. The region sits between Akureyri and the Westfjords turn-off, making it a natural stopover on a full circuit — and one that most tour buses skip entirely.