The word koyta means “hollow” and looking down onto the settlement it is clear why it has been given this name.
Í Koytu is an ancient settlement and there were probably more houses in the old days. Cadastres tell us that people lived there in 1584.
Norðara Koyta
The settlement
Pictures
Various pictures from Norðara koytu
The homestead
Hanus í Koytu – Hanus Jóannesarson
Hanus Jóannesarson, later known as Hanus í Koytu, built the homestead in Norðaru Koytu, which now belongs to the Sandur Village Museum.
He settled there in 1812, moved to Traðir in 1832 and took a farm on copyhold tenure. In 1841 he passed the tenure on to his son and moved back to Koytu. From then on people lived in Norðaru Koytu until 1938.
In 1988 the Sandur Village Museum bought the house and began restoring it, so those interested may see what an ordinary home looked like in those days and how people used to live.
This is a wooden house with a turfed roof and, in addition to the attic and hay barn, it has six rooms: an entrance hall, a kitchen with pantry, a living room and two bedrooms.
Artefacts such as shoemaking instruments, planes and other tools are exhibited in the house.
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