Stekkjarkot

Ever wondered how people lived in Iceland, before the days of corrugated iron houses and before the Icelandic concrete age arrived.

Stekkjarkot is a remake of a traditional “þurrabúð” or a seasonal workers accommodation as they were called and were common here for a while.

Those who lived here were not allowed to keep animals, e.g. cow or sheep. Such cottages were always built on the land of others and workers paid for the use, for example with seafood or they rowed on the landowner’s boats. The people that lived here thus had to rely entirely on what the sea provided, and some were often cramped if the fishing season wasn’t going well.

Kotabyggð was the first indicator of urban dwellings by the sea, although sources about such settlements can be found dating further back, it was not until the 19th century and especially the 20th that such urban areas managed to take root by the sea in this country.