Visit Laufás Museum and Heritage Site, Grýtubakkahreppur, Iceland

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Laufás turf farm is a former vicarage, a dwelling house, situated in the densely populated coastal farmland of Eyjafjörður in northern Iceland. The farmstead was modernized in the 20thcentury with new dwelling houses and stables and is still an inhabited vicarage. The old farm is a part of the National Museum's Historic Buildings Collection and is managed by the Akureyri Museum. The main thoroughfare in the area has long passed near Laufás and still does. Laufás has been one of the better beneficia with many perquisites and is mentioned several times in the medieval Saga literature. The earliest written sources reveal that a church fire took place there in late 12thcentury . Laufás counts 12 houses and the whole complex is around 29 m long and 28 m wide. Most of the farmstead is constructed in the period from 1840-1877, but the origin of the farm is older. Five gables face the yard to the west, forming a gabled farmhouse. To the north is the living room, then entrance, hall (skáli), eider down house (dúnhús) and storage. The entrance gives access to a passageway that connect the other houses; bridal house (brúðarhús), hearth kitchen, pantry and small living room, with a two storeybaðstofaat the other end. Both the upper and lower floors of thebaðstofahouse are divided into three rooms. To the south of the farmstead is Laufás church within a cemetery. The outhouses are no longer standing. The lower part of the turf walls are made from stone andstrengur, but the upper part from turf,klömbruhnaus,kvíahnaus,strengurandsnidda, with all the rooftops covered in turf. The gables are from timber. The living rooms, entrance, bridal house and the entirebaðstofahouse have panelled interior walls and wooden floors. The rest of the houses have visible turf walls and earth floor. Remnants of a stave construction are present in the passageway, which testifies to the farm's old origins. Part of the farm was built from reused timbers. Laufás represents a large turf house, built in the northern tradition, where a mixed building technique has been employed.

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