Our story
Welcome to Hraun á Skaga in rural North Iceland
Hraun á Skaga is a small family farm located on the northernmost tip of the Skagafjördur peninsula in North Iceland, just under the Arctic Circle. Icelanders know Hraun á Skaga for its weather station reports announced on public radio, and for a rare visit by a polar bear in 2008, who had drifted over from Greenland. For more than a century now, a mainstay for the farm on this geologically young lava land has been the gentle practice of eiderdown collection, along with sheep husbandry, trout fishing and the gathering of driftwood. Every spring a population of Common eiders arrive to the shores of Hraun to mate before nesting in a protected bird sancuaty just north of the farm.
The beginning
It all started…
In spring of 1914, Steinn Leó Sveinsson (1886-1957) was walking along the coast of Hraun when he passed three eiders sitting on eggs. In those days food was scarce and collecting wild eggs was common, but Steinn decided to protect the eiders. Out of these three birds the colony has steadily grown. Now, four generations later, when his great-granddaughter writes these words, those three eiders have turned into a count of 2000 to 3000 eider-couples that visit Hraun every year.
Today
A family project
Rögnvaldur Steinsson (1918-2013), together with his wife Guðlaug Jóhannsdóttir (born 1936), took over Hraun á Skaga farm from his father. Both of them were fascinated by the eiders and experimented with erecting colorful flags, homemade musical bells and wind shelters to attract the birds. At an age of 94, with legs worn out by decades of manual labor, Rögnvaldur would still visit the sanctuary by foot to observe his life’s work. Guðlaug is to this day an inexhaustible fount of knowledge and a pillar of the flourishing sanctuary. Today, the brothers Steinn Leó Rögnvaldsson (born 1957) and Jóhann Eymundur Rögnvaldsson (born 1962) both live on Hraun á Skaga with their families. Every year the whole family comes together to protect the eiders and process the eiderdown, creating some of the most cherished and nature-friendly down in the world.
The fruit of our labor
Our eiderdown duvet
Until recently, most Icelandic eiderdown, including the down from Hraun á Skaga, was exported in bulk in black garbage bags via multiple retailers, leaving collectors only a minimal fraction of the final sales price. Moreover, based on the current discrepancy between global eiderdown production and sales estimates, it seems that eiderdown diluted with other materials is being marketed and sold as pure.
Therefore, motivated by the idea of stimulating local artisans, making an authentic high-quality eiderdown duvet, and shake the hand of our customers, we decided to make our very own Eiderdown Duvet: The Skaga Eiderdown Duvet. It is handmade by us with love and care, filled with 100% pure quality-controlled eiderdown from Hraun á Skaga, and encased in the finest organic cotton, for a calming, light, and soft hug at bedtime. The Skaga Duvet is a symbol of our family’s long-standing symbiotic relationship with the wild eider.
Visit our Shop
You can take a look at our duvets by pressing the button below!
If you have any questions, we’d be more than happy to talk to you. You can email us on [email protected], or call (+354) 835 9600.
