Photo: Kurth Brekke·CC BY 3.0· Wikimedia Commons
Islands / Hvaler / Nordre Lauer
Part of the Lauer islands, which historically held an important fish receiving station where catches from the surrounding fishing stations were landed. It is car-free and thinly populated today.
Nordre Lauer is part of the Lauer islands, low and car-free, in eastern Hvaler towards the Swedish border. From the water you see bare rock, heather and scattered houses. The scheduled boat from Skjærhalden calls at Lauer; otherwise it is your own boat.
Scheduled boat from Skjærhalden (Lauer call), or your own boat.
Times shift with the season, and several of the island boats run only in summer — check the current timetable at Ruter.
The Lauer islands were fishing stations. An important receiving station stood here, taking in the catch from the stations around it, a hub in the outer Hvaler fishery at a time when every small island sent on fish and herring. As the industry shrank through the 20th century, the basis for year-round settlement went with it, as elsewhere in the skerries. Working islands turned into car-free holiday and cabin islands.
Nordre Lauer is car-free and thinly built up, used mostly in summer. The scheduled boat from Skjærhalden serves Lauer along with the Sandøy islands and Herføl.
The scheduled boat from Skjærhalden on Kirkøy calls at Lauer; departure times vary with the season, so check the current timetable. Your own boat can tie up. No access bans or protected areas are known on the island itself, but give cabin life and any grazing animals a wide berth.
Lauer took in fish for a whole cluster of small stations around it; the catch from the neighbouring islets ended up here before it went on.
Another Hvaler island that went from a working community to a cabin island when the fishing ended. It is still car-free, and no bridge has ever reached it.
Oslo Sea Experience passes Nordre Lauer on its private fjord trips from Tjuvholmen.
The Norwegian version notes which facts were taken from each source: Nordre Lauer på norsk.