The first lighthouses on the coast of Faxaflói Bay were built after 1880. They were so-called cairn lighthouses or fisherman's lighthouses, with a plain lantern to guide the seafarers. The earliest. indicator of a lighthouse in Akranes was a lantern, placed on top of a 7 meter high post, erected on the lot of Teigakot turf house which stood at the top of Akurshóll hillock on the south end of Vitateigur street. It was Björn Ólafsson (1857-1890), housed in Oddsbær farmhouse, who had the idea of building a lighthouse in Akranes and made the proposal at a meeting in the Æfingafélagið society, which was established in 1882 and initiated several matters of progress. Blacksmith Sigurður Jónsson (1843-1935) built the structure in January 1890, but due to speculations on the management and operation of the lighthouse, and its global position, it was not lit until over a year
later, on March 4th, 1891.
The first lighthouse keeper, carpenter Bjarni
Jörundsson (1853-1901), began work immedi-
ately in 1890, even though the lantern was not
lit yet, and he had that job for one year. Magnús Magnússon Hólm, housed in Teigakot, took over as lighthouse keeper in February 1891, but Magnús drowned, sailing out to fish on November 16th that year. It is not known who the keepers were the next years thereafter. The cairn post stood on Akurshóll hillock until the old lighthouse on Breid was built on Suðurflös skerry in 1918.
At the initiative of Faxaflóahafnir - The Associated Icelandic Ports, in collaboration with Akranes municipality, a monument of the first lighthouse in Akranes was built and erected in November 2018 here on Akurshóll hillock. The monument was dedicated on December 8th, 2018, marking the 100th anniversary of the construction of the lighthouse on Breið on Suðurflös skerry.