The Iceing Facilities at Húsavík
This informative plaque talks about some ruins not far from Húsavíkurkleif.
THE ICING FACILITIES AT HÚSAVÍK
Just below the main road, the remains of a quite remarkable building stand behind a fence. Used for icing various goods, these facilities were probably the first of their kind on the entire coast of Strandir. Construction started in the autumn of 1898 and was completed the next year, when operations also began. The farming couple who loved at Húsavík then were named Grímur Stefánsson and Regnheiður Kristín Jónsdóttir.
Until electricity arrived, such icing facilities were the equivalent of freezer rooms. Built at several places in Strandir, mostly after 1917, some were operated even past the middle of the 20th Century. It was Icelandic settlers in Canada — fishermen at Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba — who brought knowledge of this means of preservation to Iceland, during the last decade of the 19th century.
Such icing facilities were used to store food as well as bait that was frozen in a mixture of snow or ice and salt. What need freezing was arranged in trays or special freezing boxes. Icing facilities were constructed of either turf or wood, with walls that would keep the cold inside the building, for instance using sawdust for insulation. Some facilities sold bait and ice to seamen.