Norway
Torghatten, Norway
Torghatten: The Mountain with a Hole Through It
- Port traffic
- QuietNext 30 days
Good to know
Sailing Past Torghatten
On the itineraries that list it, Torghatten is a mountain your ship passes rather than a quay where it ties up; your cruise line will tell you when to be on deck. It rises from the island of Torget in Brønnøy Municipality, Nordland, near the coastal town of Brønnøysund.
- The mountain is shaped like a hat and reaches 258 meters above the sea.
- The tunnel through it is about 160 meters long and lies more than 100 meters above sea level.
- On land, the hole is reached on a well-made path in about 15 to 20 minutes from the main road.
The Legend of the Hat
Torghatten belongs to an old legend of the Helgeland mountains, in which trolls and maidens were turned to stone. Its name joins the island's name, Torget, with the Norwegian word for hat.
- The arrow and the hat: The troll Hestmannen chased the maiden Lekamøya and, when he could not catch her, shot an arrow at her. The troll king of Sømna threw his hat into the arrow's path, and the arrow went straight through it.
- Turned to stone: Then the sun rose, and all the figures in the story turned to stone. The hat became Torghatten.
- More than one telling: Another version names different figures from the same mountains, but the arrow through the hat is always there.
- A local name: One of Norway's major ferry companies, based in nearby Brønnøysund, is named after the mountain.
History
Torghatten's story is mostly a geological one, written over two or more ice ages. Its human history is short and includes one of Norway's worst air accidents.
- Ancient rock: The mountain is made of granite of Proterozoic age, with near-vertical layering that left lines of weakness in the rock.
- Under the ice: At the height of the last ice age, about 20,000 to 22,000 years ago, the area lay under roughly 1,000 meters of ice.
- A higher sea: When the ice withdrew about 12,000 years ago, the sea stood about 100 meters higher than today, and a beach ridge of rounded boulders on the northeast side of the mountain still marks it.
- How the hole was made: For years the tunnel was thought to be the work of waves. Later research found smoothed, ice-shaped rock inside it and concluded that meltwater under glaciers, moving ice and waves all played a part, over at least two glacial cycles.
- May 6, 1988: A Widerøe passenger plane approaching Brønnøysund crashed into the mountain, and all 36 people on board died.
- A visitor site: About 100,000 people a year now walk up to the hole.
Torghatten with Children
Torghatten is a story to tell on deck, with a legend for small children and a real science puzzle for older ones. Have the tale ready before the ship comes close.
- Younger children: Tell the story of the troll who shot an arrow, the king who threw his hat, and the sunrise that turned them all to stone, then look for the hat-shaped mountain.
- School age: The hole is about 160 meters long. Ask how anyone could make a tunnel that long through solid granite.
- Teenagers: Talk through the real answer: geologists once blamed the waves, but newer research points to ice and meltwater under glaciers as well, working over more than one ice age.
Port crowds
Next 30 days
Traveler photos
Photos from travelers
Reviews
Traveler reviews
Be the first to share your experience.
Suggest an edit
See something missing or incorrect?