(, ) is a bay of the Iceland Sea in Northwestern Region and Westfjords, Iceland. It is situated between the village of Strandir on peninsula to the west and the of Skagi peninsula to the east. Spanning , it has a maximum width of about and length of .
The Battle of the Gulf () was a naval battle on 25 June 1244 in , during the Age of the Sturlungs civil war. A detailed description of the battle can be found in .
Geography
Fjords The major features of Húnaflói are its seven fjords and the Vatnsnes peninsula. Along Strandir () of eastern Vestfirðir, four fjords branch from the western Húnaflói (listed north to south): , , , and . Steingrímsfjörður is the largest of Strandir's fjords, curving into the countryside.
In the southwest of Húnaflói is the long Hrútafjörður, the bay's longest fjord. The southern tip of Hrútafjörður traditionally marked the boundary between the regions of and .
Immediately east of Hrútafjörður is Miðfjörður. The fjord is fed by the (), one of Iceland's most productive salmon rivers.
Continuing east is the Vatnsnes peninsula, which forms the western edge of , the largest fjord of Húnaflói. Skagi Peninsula is the eastern extent of Húnafjörður and of the entire Húnaflói. ('Coast of Skagi' or )
Settlements and other features Húnaflói and much of its geography are documented in and several sagas of Icelanders, including Gull-Þóris saga, Gísla saga, Grettis saga, and Vatnsdæla saga, among others. Together, the historical record and corroborating archaeological evidence suggest that continuous human presence in Húnaflói started during the settlement of Iceland in the late ninth century.
Today, Húnaflói supports a population in the low thousands and has several localities of more than one hundred inhabitants. The population centers are all situated along fjords, excepting the village of Skagaströnd, which lies directly on the eastern shore of Húnaflói.
Steingrímsfjörður in the Westfjords supports two settlements, Drangsnes and Hólmavík. The largest settlement on Strandir, Hólmavík, has 302 residents and forms the municipality of Strandabyggð's urban nucleus. Situated near the mid-point of Steingrímsfjörður's fertile southern shore, it is surrounded by farmland.
Drangsnes sits at the northeastern point of Steingrímsfjörður, where it meets Húnaflói. The hamlet is the largest settlement in Kaldrananeshreppur despite having just 71 inhabitants. Several kilometers west of Drangsnes is , the site of a 17th-century Basque whaling station where whales were processed before being shipped.
The island sits less than off the coast of Drangsnes. According to Landnámabók, the island was named after from Haddingjadal, who overwintered on the island and drowned while rowing to the mainland. The island's name is often elaborated as () to distinguish it from the larger island of the same name in Akureyri municipality.
Historically, the southern point of Hrútafjörður marked the border between the counties of and . Since 1 January 2012, all of Hrútafjörður falls within the municipality of Húnaþing vestra in the Northwestern Region. The hamlet of Borðeyri, which had a population of sixteen in 2018, is located on the western coast of Hrútafjörður and the largest settlement in Húnaþing vestra – Hvammstangi (pop. 625) is found along eastern Miðfjörður. The village of Laugarbakki (pop. 55) is situated slightly less than south of Miðfjörður on the Miðfjarðará.
The small town of Blönduós in Húnabyggð and the village of Skagaströnd in Sveitarfélagið Skagaströnd are found on the eastern coast of Húnafjörður. The southern coast of Húnafjörður is defined by the Þingeyrasandur, a shoal that separates the Hóp tidal lagoon from the Húnaflói. Þingeyrasandur is itself defined by the "lakes" on the west and on the east.
Fauna The bay has been proposed as a protected area for harbor seals.
Grímsey á Steingrímsfirði hosts a colony of 25–30 thousand breeding pairs of Atlantic puffins, accounting for more than 1% of the puffin population in Iceland.
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References