Photo: Stig Ulfsby·CC BY-SA 3.0· Wikimedia Commons
Islands / Hvaler / Nordre Sandøy
A car-free island in eastern Hvaler with a network of walking paths and a summer café at Makø farm. Old family farms and modern cabins stand side by side, after the fishing industry went.
The island lies far east in Hvaler, close to the Swedish border, with Søndre Sandøy directly to the south and the Gravningsund channel between. The island is low and wooded and has no cars at all. The quay in the south is where the scheduled boat from Skjærhalden comes in, and the cluster of houses around it is the clearest feature; the rest of the island is paths, bare rock and cabins.
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Live times from Entur. Full timetable at Ruter.
Scheduled boat from Skjærhalden (ferry quay in the south); no car traffic.
Times shift with the season, and several of the island boats run only in summer — check the current timetable at Ruter.
The Sandøy islands were fishing islands. People here lived off the sea for centuries, and the herring fishery left its mark: a herring salting house stood in Gravningsund, the channel between Nordre and Søndre Sandøy, where the catch was taken in and salted down. Several family farms kept the island inhabited through generations.
A general store stood by the quay in the south for much of the 20th century. It closed once the basis for it went: the fishing industry shrank, the population fell, and better boat and ferry links to Skjærhalden and across the border made it easy to shop elsewhere. Many moved to the mainland, and what had been year-round family farms turned bit by bit into holiday property.
Nordre Sandøy is car-free and used mostly in summer. Makø farm runs a summer café, and the island has a network of paths over bare rock and through woods. The buildings are mixed: old farmhouses still standing, and a growing number of cabins with summer guests. Few people live here year-round.
The scheduled boat leaves from Skjærhalden on Kirkøy and calls at the ferry quay in the south; there is no car traffic on the island. The route serves the Sandøy islands, Herføl and Lauer, and departure times vary with the season, so check the current timetable. Your own boat can tie up at the quay. No access bans or protected areas are known on the island itself, but give cabin life and grazing animals a wide berth.
The name Gravningsund carries over from the days of the herring salting house, when the channel was a workplace as much as a fairway.
The general store by the quay was the island's meeting point until it went the way of the fishery. The closure is a Hvaler story through and through: when the fish ran out, the shop and the year-round population went with it.
Makø farm and its summer café are the reason most visitors set foot on Nordre Sandøy at all these days.
Oslo Sea Experience passes Nordre Sandøy on its private fjord trips from Tjuvholmen.
The Norwegian version notes which facts were taken from each source: Nordre Sandøy på norsk.