Running guesthouse since 1986

Brunnhóll guesthouse is owned and run by Sigurlaug Gissurardóttir and Jón Kristinn Jónsson 

 

The Brunnhóll guesthouse is owned and run by Sigurlaug Gissurardóttir and Jón Kristinn Jónsson.   

Sigurlaug and Jón Kristinn started operating tourist services at the farmhouse at Brunnhóll in 1986.  Demand was great from the outset and this part of the business grew steadily.  As the work increased and the boys grew up, Jón Kristinn and Sigurlaug's sons took an ever greater part in the running of the farm itself.  There was plenty to do!

Major changes were introduced at the start of 2005.  Their son Sæmundur Jón and his partner Anne Manly Thomsen took over the dairy farm and plans were put in place to expand the tourist side of Brunnhóll still further.  The connections between the two farms remain strong, and the younger generation at Árbær are happy to give guests at Brunnhóll a glimpse of life on a working Icelandic farm.  Guests can even get an idea of what goes on in the cattle sheds through the televisions in their rooms.

• In partnership with others, bought the farms at Árbær and Brunnhóll in 1980
• Farms run along traditional lines in the first years, with both cows and sheep
• All buildings improved and dairy herd expanded
• New farmhouse built at Árbær, 1981
• Took full ownership of both the farms in 1982
• Cowshed expanded to include a new milking shed, 1985-87
• Tourist services introduced, 1986
• New extension built for guesthouse, 5 rooms and lounge, 1992
• Plans introduced to improve wheelchair access
• Sunroom built onto the residential section for use as a dining room, 1994
• New foyer and larger and more comfortable bathrooms and toilets, 1999
• Younger generation takes over the dairy farm, early 2005
• New section added to the guesthouse, 11 rooms plus self-contained apartment
• Various work to improve the surrounds of the guesthouse

 

Sigurlaug Gissurardóttir and Jón Kristinn Jónsson were both born and brought up in Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla, a little to the west, near Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Vík villages.  In partnership with their friends Jóhannes Eggertsson and Vilborg Thorsteinsson, they bought the farms at Árbær and Brunnhóll in 1980, and two years later took over the entire property.  In the early years it was run mainly as a dairy farm, to which the newcomers added a small stock of sheep.  Sheep farming was discontinued in the middle of the 1990s.