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Måstad is an abandoned fishing village on Værøy's exposed southern coast, reachable only on foot via a roughly two-and-a-half-hour trail from Sørland. At its peak around 1900 over 120 people lived here, sustaining themselves through fishing and puffin-catching on the surrounding cliffs.
The village was the last stronghold of the Norwegian Lundehund, a breed developed specifically to crawl into puffin burrows and retrieve birds. By the 1930s these dogs survived almost exclusively here. A distemper outbreak during World War II nearly wiped them out entirely; at one point only six purebred Lundehunds remained in all of Norway, and every dog alive today descends from that handful.
The school closed in 1953, most families left in 1959, and the last permanent resident died in 1982. Some buildings still stand and are used as summer cabins. The trail passes through wild terrain with loose rocks and tufted grass, ending at one of the most atmospheric spots in all of Lofoten.
The village was the last stronghold of the Norwegian Lundehund, a breed developed specifically to crawl into puffin burrows and retrieve birds. By the 1930s these dogs survived almost exclusively here. A distemper outbreak during World War II nearly wiped them out entirely; at one point only six purebred Lundehunds remained in all of Norway, and every dog alive today descends from that handful.
The school closed in 1953, most families left in 1959, and the last permanent resident died in 1982. Some buildings still stand and are used as summer cabins. The trail passes through wild terrain with loose rocks and tufted grass, ending at one of the most atmospheric spots in all of Lofoten.
