Photo: Peter Fiskerstrand·CC BY-SA 4.0· Wikimedia Commons
Islands / Tønsberg / Jarlsø
An island of about 20 hectares (200 mål) with a long history: the king's council met here under Håkon Håkonsson in the 1200s, and later the island carried a shipyard (Jarlsø Verft from 1915) and whale processing until 1963. After the industry closed in 2006 it was built out with housing; the southern tip still holds woodland, a beacon and German fortifications from the Second World War.
You see two islands in one: to the north a close rank of modern apartment blocks in glass and white render along the shore, to the south an untouched wooded point with a beacon on the tip. The contrast is the point. Heavy industry stood here for close to a hundred years, and the island is now housing.
Bridge from Husvik.
The island is connected by road, so you need neither a boat nor a timetable.
Jarlsø covers around 20 hectares off Husvik in Tønsberg. The history goes a long way back: after King Håkon Håkonsson began holding the king's council here in the 1200s, the Council of the Realm met regularly on Jarlsø.
In the age of sail, roughly 1850 to 1910, the island served as an anchorage. From 1910 to 1963 large whaling factory ships lay moored here. Jarlsø Verft opened in 1915, building whaling vessels and equipment, and also broke up ships before the Second World War. After the war Kaldnes Mekaniske Verksted took over most of the operation. Jarlsø Støperi A/S made high-voltage pylons and ran a galvanising plant into the 1980s, and in 1986 the companies were merged into Jarlsø Fabrikker A/S.
Tor Solum bought the island in 1995. All industry closed in 2006, and housing construction started the following year, planned for around 430 units. The southern tip was left alone: a small wood, a beacon and the remains of German positions from the Second World War.
Jarlsø is a residential island, joined to Husvik by a bridge. The northern part is built up with apartments along the water; the southern tip is untouched woodland with a beacon and wartime remains.
You drive here over the bridge from Husvik. The built-up part is private housing, with no coastal cabin and no public campsite. No protected areas or access restrictions are registered on the island itself. Be considerate around private docks.
In the 1200s the Council of the Realm met here under Håkon Håkonsson. Seven hundred years later whaling factory ships lay moored in the same place, and today people live in apartments over the old shipyard grounds.
The whaling industry was based here for more than fifty years; the factory ships lay at Jarlsø from 1910 to 1963.
The southern tip still carries concrete from German positions built in the Second World War, a few hundred metres from the new apartments.
Oslo Sea Experience passes Jarlsø on its private fjord trips from Tjuvholmen.
The Norwegian version notes which facts were taken from each source: Jarlsø på norsk.