Photo: Far min·CC BY-SA 4.0· Wikimedia Commons
Islands / Holmestrand / Bjerkøya
An island and a settlement of about 225 people in Sandebukta, with a road link to the mainland. The southern part is protected as Bjørkøya nature reserve.
Bjerkøya lies at the outer end of Sandebukta, west of the entrance to the Drammensfjord. It is an inhabited island with a road to the mainland, home to around 225 people. Houses and gardens fill the north; the lighter forest towards the south marks the nature reserve, standing on the same fossil-rich limestone as the rest of this stretch of coast.
Bjørkøya nature reserve (southern part). The boundaries and the rules are in Naturbase, and they are worth checking before you land anywhere outside the marked areas.
Road (attached to the mainland).
The island is connected by road, so you need neither a boat nor a timetable.
Bjerkøya is 0.8 km² and connected to the mainland by Bjerkøyveien. Until 2012 the island counted as a settlement in its own right; then Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå) changed its method of calculation and Bjerkøya dropped out of the settlement statistics. The population has fallen slightly, from 238 in 2000 to 225 in 2012.
The southern end was protected as Bjørkøya nature reserve on 5 January 1988. The reserve exists to preserve the fossil-bearing rocks of the Oslo Rift (Oslofeltet) and the pine forest on limestone that goes with them. The area has been one of the last places in northern Vestfold with otters, and the last known site in the region for the orchid red helleborine.
Bjerkøya is a residential island. People live here year round and drive to and from over the road, and the southern end lies protected. The limestone in the reserve shows clear cross-sections from the Silurian, with the imprints of armoured sea creatures, brachiopods, that look like shells.
The island has a fixed road link, so you come here by car rather than ferry. For anyone travelling the fjord, the southern end is the interesting part: Bjørkøya nature reserve, protected on 5 January 1988. Plants and animals in a reserve are protected by law. Check the protection regulation before landing or camping in the reserve; the exact access provisions are set out there.
Bjerkøya counted as a settlement of its own until 2012. Then Statistics Norway changed the way it calculated, and the island vanished from the statistics without a single house being pulled down.
The reserve in the south was one of the last places in northern Vestfold where otters held on, and the last known site in the region for the rare orchid red helleborine.
The rock here is an open textbook in geology: Silurian stone carrying the imprints of animals from a seabed more than 400 million years old.
Oslo Sea Experience passes Bjerkøya on its private fjord trips from Tjuvholmen.
The Norwegian version notes which facts were taken from each source: Bjerkøya på norsk.