Espevær is a car-free island village west of Bømlo, reachable only by boat. Today it is a quiet cluster of houses tucked into the sheltered side of the island. In the 1850s, it was one of the most important places on the Norwegian coast.
During the great herring fisheries of the mid-1800s, up to 30,000 fishermen descended on Espevær every season. The village became an administrative centre, and a telegraph station was established as early as 1857. The Baadehuset, built in 1850 on stone foundations from 1690, served as the hub of this operation. It is now a museum.
The village also has Hummarparken, a lobster park built in 1887, the largest of its kind in Norway. It was restored in 1994 and now functions as a museum and aquarium.
A more peculiar attraction: in 1975, a circular imprint appeared in the ground, attributed by some to a landed UFO. It is still faintly visible.
Espevær is not on the way to anywhere. You need a boat to get there, and there is nothing to buy or do except walk around and absorb the atmosphere of a place that was once enormously important and is now almost forgotten.
During the great herring fisheries of the mid-1800s, up to 30,000 fishermen descended on Espevær every season. The village became an administrative centre, and a telegraph station was established as early as 1857. The Baadehuset, built in 1850 on stone foundations from 1690, served as the hub of this operation. It is now a museum.
The village also has Hummarparken, a lobster park built in 1887, the largest of its kind in Norway. It was restored in 1994 and now functions as a museum and aquarium.
A more peculiar attraction: in 1975, a circular imprint appeared in the ground, attributed by some to a landed UFO. It is still faintly visible.
Espevær is not on the way to anywhere. You need a boat to get there, and there is nothing to buy or do except walk around and absorb the atmosphere of a place that was once enormously important and is now almost forgotten.