Patreksfjordhur Travel Guide

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Patreksfjörður (pop. 900) is the southernmost fjord in the region, named after St. Patrick, a bishop from the Scottish isles. Tálknafjörður lies between Patreksfjörður and Arnarfjörður. Patreksfjörður town is built on two spits. Its history can be traced back to 1570. The airport at Sandoddi is on the farside of the fjord at the mouth of Sauðalauksdalur Valley, where Iceland’s first potatoes cultivated in the 18th century. The local clergyman responsible for their introduction was also pioneering advocate of harvesting herbs and dietary awareness.

He wrote the first Icelandic works on botany and herbal medicine, which are still quoted today. Early this century, Patreksfjörður saw some of the most ambitious development projects in Iceland at that time. The first trials with trawler fishing began there, and the town won a particular reputation for its own brand of salt fish in southern European markets. Patreksfjörður looked northwards in its quest for diversification, too, sending the only distant-water vessel from Iceland ever to hunt seal in the Arctic, from 1915-1917. The zest for progress shown by those industrial pioneers lives on in the minds and hearts of the people of Patreksfjörður today.