The nearby mountain of Helgafell is the burial place of Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, a heroine of the Icelandic sagas.

In the 1986 novel Red Storm Rising, Stykkishólmur is the site of a landing by US Marines tasked with liberating Iceland from occupying Soviet forces.

[3] The town was the filming location for the depictions of Nuuk, Greenland in the 2013 movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

[4] Every year on the second or third weekend in August, the people in Stykkishólmur celebrate the Danskir dagar ("Danish days") festival, which honors the town's historic connections with Denmark.

It has cool summers, but also winter averages less cold than cities much further south featuring temperate continental climates, such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Toronto, or Denver.