Exhibitions on our ground floor: Temporarily closed
Oh, To Be a Bird
The bird life in Iceland is one of the many reasons people want to visit our tiny island. Due to the unspoiled wilderness and a lack of natural predators, Iceland has a vast array of bird species, some migratory and others spending all their days by the Icelandic shores or mountains. The natural museum of Borgarnes, originally based on the life work of two taxidermists, Kristján Geirmundsson and Jón M. Guðmundsson, has specimens of over 205 birds of 116 species, including some that are considered very rare outside of Iceland. It’s one of the few places in Iceland where you can see a white-tailed eagle.
The traditional Turfhouse
Make sure you don’t miss the jewel of our museum exhibitions, an old baðstofa (living room from a traditional turfhouse) taken down in the 50s at a local farm and rebuilt inside the museum. Traditionally the baðstofa was the multi-functional, main space of a turfhouse. To keep warm, people would gather in a single space to eat, sleep, work and entertain. The room is filled with artifacts from the era, ranging from children´s toys to tools for spinning wool. Step back a century to Iceland´s most traditional housing.