Iceland
Hólmavík
A sleepy fjord village home to a dark history of Icelandic sorcery and witchcraft.
The necropants stand behind glass — a replica of trousers said to be made from a dead man's skin, displayed in a small museum in a village so quiet the loudest sound is wind. In Hólmavík, Iceland's history of sorcery is kept with the same matter-of-fact tone locals use for weather.
Hólmavík holds the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, which documents the 17th-century witch hunts that saw around twenty people — nearly all men — burned in Iceland on charges of magical practice. Its centrepiece is the nábrók, the 'necropants' worn in folklore to generate endless wealth, displayed among rune staves, spell books and trial transcripts with a deliberately unsettling calm. Outside, the village is a small fishing harbour on Steingrímsfjörður and the doorway to Strandir, the wildest and emptiest shore Iceland keeps. The contrast between the dark material and the sleepy village is the experience.
Solo
The museum absorbs you completely alone — no distraction from the unsettling detail — and the empty Strandir coast waits beyond for travellers drawn to history's darker edges.
Friends
The necropants, the witch trials, the remote setting — Hólmavík provokes conversation and dares. The offbeat stop friends talk each other into.
- The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft documents the Westfjords' 17th-century witch hunts.
- Its centrepiece is the nábrók — 'necropants' of folklore, said to be cut from a dead man's skin.
- A sleepy fishing-harbour village wraps the dark material in unnerving calm.
- The town is the gateway to Strandir, one of Iceland's least-visited coasts.
Hearty local-ingredient lunches at Galdur, the restaurant beside the sorcery museum.
Café Riis pairs classic Icelandic cooking from local land and sea with house pizzas in Hólmavík’s oldest building.
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