Glaumbaer (11)

Glaumbaer is perhaps 30 minutes driving south of Saudarkrokur. It is a very small village of turf houses which have been restored and maintained as a period museum. The reason there are so few remains of past builds and villages is because they were mostly built of turf. And that's because there are very few trees in Iceland and therefore little lumber. Most building that remain are stone and most modern construction is metal.

These photos were taken in August 2007 mostly with a Nikon D200.

Glaumbaer: The one exception to the no-wood building seems the little churches we've seen. In Europe, for example, it is common to see great cathedrals decorated lavishly with gold, or mosaics or frescoes. Decorating churches was an extravagance dedicated to the glory of God. Maybe here, building with wood was an extravagance. I don't know ... but the thought interests me.
Glaumbaer: You can get an idea of these turf houses. They typically have a front wall built of wood, but the rest of the exterior walls and roof were made of turf. Inside, there is framing of wood and wooden interior walls. Floors tended to be dirt or stone. Another thought occurs to me ... turf is a good thermal insulator.
Glaumbaer: Turf may have been a practical choice to keep out the cold Icelandic Winter.
Glaumbaer: You'd think it would be damp inside but we didn't find it so.

Glaumbaer: We were there at the end of summer when everything had pretty much dried out. Wonder what it would be like in the wet of late Spring?
Glaumbaer