Selatangar used to be a big fishing outfit, located in a sheltered inlet between two lava flows, Grindavik and Krýsuvík. It was used from the Middle-Ages and until 1884 when it was abandoned in 1880. During the main fishing season in winter, fishermen rowed out to sea from Selatangar in open boats. Rough, small and made from carved lava rock, one can still see the remains of the fishermen’s huts and the sheds where stock fish was stored. The extended ruins of the abodes and other houses are still very prominent in the landscape and have been declared inviolate. Selatangar became a popular place to get driftwood in the earlier times, however, there is much less of it nowadays. The landscape around Selatangar is rigid with low mountains and lava fields.
During the later part of the 19th century, the settlement was haunted by an especially malevolent ghost called Tanga-Tómas.