Skaga Fjord

Skagafjörður opens northward from the valleys of Iceland into the cold sea. Inland, Hólar became the bishop's seat for northern Iceland in 1106, joining religious authority to the farms of the district. The region was also a center of conflict among powerful families. In 1246 Þórður kakali and Brandur Kolbeinsson led opposing forces at Haugsnes in Skagafjörður, in one of the fiercest battles of Iceland's age of civil strife. The fjord gave the valleys a route to the northern sea.