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The first settler at
Farm Baer was a woman by the name Arndis The Wealthy
Steinolfsdottir.
According to The Book of Settlements, Balki Blaengsson, who was
the first settler on the Hruta Bay, spent his last years at Baer.
This farm was an estate, occupied by many District Sheriffs and
the assembly place of the county for centuries until the assembly was
moved to Bordeyri in 1979.
The property offers many advantages and nowadays two families in
two farms live there.
The spit of land down below on the bay is called Baejarnes.
It was declared inviolate because of the interesting fossils of
shells.
The
islands Baejarey and Baldey and a few skerries are just off the coast
and are colonized by eider ducks and sometimes driftwood finds its way
to them.
Other
benefits of the farm are peat, trout and char fishing in nearby lakes
and lichens.
Among the prominent personalities, who lived at Baer in the past
was Thorleifur Kortsson, District Sheriff and Governor of the northern
and western parts of the country.
He is remembered for his involvement in witch hunting and his
enthusiasm in finding witches and sorcerers to burn at the stake.
Just
inside the home fields are ancient burial mounds called Thraelahaugar
(The Slaves’ Mounds).
Rev. Bui Jonsson, who wrote the annals of the Prestbakki benefice
in the middle of the 19th century, claims to have found human
bones there. |