These islands are the namesakes of a more
renowned group of islands off Skardstrond further east.
They offered some advantages, such as birds, shore and fish and
contained fishing outfits before the turn of the 18th
century.
The oldest preserved boat with the Breidafiord shape is from
there.
According to the
Saga of the Marshland Killings, Styr the savage acquired them with
violence and false accusations.
In 1360 they were the property of the Helgafell monastery.
In 1702, 16 people lived there and kept 8 heads of cattle and 9
sheep. Between 1890 and 1920 ten people lived
there, and the last inhabitants left in 1952.
The name of the islands points to grain crop growing, possibly by
the first settler, Bjorn austraeni and his descendents. Vague traces of earth fences between the North and South
headlands and southwest of Fotabard can still be seen.
Island Skeley
is south of the Farm Cove.
It contained two outlying farms or fishing outfits around 1700 and there
were probably more earlier.
Island Faskrud
is a barren island 2,5 km north of the Akureyjar Islands and still two
kilometres further north is an islet called Gagnsleysa (The Useless
Islet). Four kilometres to
the northeast is the most frequented fishing outfit on the southern part
of the bay in times past, Island Hoskuldsey.
West Iceland Saga
Trail |