Skagaströnd has been a trading center since the late 15th century. Today it is a thriving fishing port with seafood processing plants. The people of Skagaströnd have quite often shown their pioneering spirit to enhance the property of the village and its surrounding area. In Skagaströnd is a school for children up to 15 years old, a grocery store, a health care center, a church, service flats for the elderly, a sports center, swimming pool and hot pots, Cafe, the famous restaurant Kántrýbær and the country and western radio station, a 9 hole golf course, a good campsite and much more. The distance from Reykjavik is 268 km.
A new kind of activities are taking place by the opening of the Nes artist residency and the marine biotechnology science hotel. In preparation is a prophet center for fortune tellers in the spirit of Þordís Spakona.
Sagas
The first information about a settlement at Skagaströnd comes from the 10th century. Then a prophetess by the name of Þordis lived there at Spákonufell (Prophetess Mountain). She crops up throughout the Icelandic sagas and her reputation was ambivalent as she was skilled in witchcraft. The sagas tell that that Þordis walked up to Spakonufell every day (646 m.) and combed her hair with a golden comb. It is said that she had hidden her gold in the mountain and put a spell on it so that no one could use it except women which were not baptized and who hadn't learnt any of Gods words. In the time of the trading monopoly Skagaströnd was the main trading center for the people in county until around 1900 when trading was established at the nearby town. Port building began in the 1930s and a fish factory was established in 1944 and a herring factory was built in 1946. There were plans to expand the town to about 3000-5000 people however the herring
