Myken is a cluster of low, treeless islands 32 kilometres out in the open Norwegian Sea, with about 13 year-round residents. For centuries, families lived here because of the fishing: cod, haddock, and herring thrived in the deep, cold waters around the islands. At its peak, the village had several hundred inhabitants. By the late 20th century, like so many outer-coast communities, it was fading.
What changed things was an unlikely combination of weather and whisky. In 2014, Roar Larsen and Trude Tokle were stranded on Myken during a sailing trip and fell in love with the place. They converted the old fish factory into a distillery and began making whisky: the world's most remote, matured in barrels stored in old fishing sheds exposed to salt spray and Atlantic storms. Myken Distillery now produces single malt that has won international recognition, and the island has become a destination for whisky enthusiasts and anyone drawn to places at the edge of the map.
The island also has a lighthouse, built in 1918, automated in 1975, and beautifully renovated in 2018 by the Norwegian TV show Eventyrlig Oppussing. You can stay in it. The combination of a night in a lighthouse, a distillery tour, and the raw isolation of the open sea is hard to find anywhere else in Norway.
What changed things was an unlikely combination of weather and whisky. In 2014, Roar Larsen and Trude Tokle were stranded on Myken during a sailing trip and fell in love with the place. They converted the old fish factory into a distillery and began making whisky: the world's most remote, matured in barrels stored in old fishing sheds exposed to salt spray and Atlantic storms. Myken Distillery now produces single malt that has won international recognition, and the island has become a destination for whisky enthusiasts and anyone drawn to places at the edge of the map.
The island also has a lighthouse, built in 1918, automated in 1975, and beautifully renovated in 2018 by the Norwegian TV show Eventyrlig Oppussing. You can stay in it. The combination of a night in a lighthouse, a distillery tour, and the raw isolation of the open sea is hard to find anywhere else in Norway.