Westfjords Heritage Museum

Neðstikaupstaður, down by the harbour of Ísafjörður, is a group of four dark timber houses put up by Danish traders in the 1700s — the oldest surviving cluster of buildings in Iceland. The museum occupies one of them, Turnhúsið, built in 1784 as a warehouse. Several floors cover fishing and coastal life in the Westfjords: boat engines, ship models, old fishing gear, a diving suit. A steep staircase climbs to a lookout in the tower.