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From the beautiful wooden town of Levanger there goes a ferry to Hokstad on Ytterøya. Bring your bike and discover this pearl in the inner Trondheimsfjord!

Just east of the ferry quay at Hokstad, there are remains of Ytterøy Kopperverk. Mining on Ytterøya started as early as 1630, as one of Norway’s earliest mines. 5-600 people worked in the mine around 1870. The copper works were sold to an English company and renamed “Ytterøy Mining Company”. The English owners settled on the island, and the mine had the largest production in the country. The peak year was 1867, when 35,000 tonnes of ore were shipped out (95 tonnes per day). This corresponded to 25% of the world’s needs. The ore reserves were largely exhausted by 1880, and activity declined accordingly. Operations were closed down in the interwar period. It can be dangerous to explore the mining area, please do follow the paths! In the spring of 1870, there was a large mudslide by the mines. 7 people died, including 3 children.

In the 1840s/50s, the Ytterøen mines were set up to extract pyrite. This was to be used for the production of sulfuric acid at the Leren Kromfabrikk in Trondheim, but that project failed.

We lived in Skolbakken (the School Hill) east of the mines when we were on Ytterøya this summer. It’s nice here! Our hosts, Yvonne and Jens, needed help salvaging their submarine, but we spent so much time sightseeing, swimming and time together, that no help came out of it.

The road through the forest became a fascinating affair. Here is a viking ship of a very special type:

The bathing took place in Kabelvika, where the power cable to Ytterøya was landed earlier. Here there are a lot of pebbles! Our recommendation is to use wet socks or preferably swimming shoes in such cases, but of course we didn’t remember to bring them. For our evening bath, there were 4 of us, each with their own solution to the problem:

• Idun wore her sandals all the way down to the water front.
• Knut stepped over the pebble field without caring much about it.
• Jens didn’t bathe.
• Yvonne committed to the the Finnish national sport of wife-carrying.

Apart from the pebble problem it was a really nice bath at dusk. From Ytterøya’s south side, you can see a lot of lights from Levanger and Fiborgtangen. Wife carrying baths on Ytterøya is just right!

After a bath, time is perfect for going on a visit. It was Hauke’s birthday, so we went home to Randi and Hauke. He wanted a visit of the Norwegian King and Queen for his birthday, but since he had forgotten to send the invitation, Hauke had to be satisfied by a couple of neighbours, as well as a couple of Trondhjemmers with accordions. Good enough, right? On a birthday visit, time is perfect for a taste of ‘Grønn Glede’ (Green Happiness). It was very, very green, but you survived, Knut? Extremely healthy this is!

‘The very first steamship to enter the Trondheimsfjord was the English Georg Canning, in 1837. During a stay in Trondhjem, the ship was rented out for a pleasure trip to Steinkjer. Everywhere, the steamship caused great excitement and sometimes horror. In Mosvik, the men resolutely refused to row out to the ‘Smoke boat’ (“Røykbåten”), which could go against both wind and current.‘ (From the information board at Jørstad)

15 years later, a fixed route network was established at Innherred, served by steamships. On Ytterøya, Jørstad was listed as a port of call from 1850.

‘D/S “Nidelven” was built in Trondhjem and was the first passenger steamship to be made in Norway. The hull was built at Trondhjem’s shipyard, it was made of pine, copper bolts and skin. The boiler and machine were built and installed by the Factory at Nidelven (now Trondhjern’s Mech. Verksted).’ Today the factory contains apartments, where we lived ourselves in the 1990’s. Coal consumption was 3 barrels per hour. The first trip was made on Trondhjemsfjorden on 24th of November 1850, including singing, music and great festivities.

In the first years there was no quay at Jørstad, people and goods were rowed out to the steamship. Indherred’s Aktie-Dampskibsselskab built the quay and the ‘Litjpakkuset’ (the Little Warehouse) at Jørstadsjøen in 1930. Now the goods could be hoisted directly on board. For easy lifting of horses and cattle, the steamship had its own cattle box. A cattle box copy can be found on the quay, and Idun just had to try it.

D/S Nidelven’s route at Innherred was a big disappointment, as the traffic in no way covered the expenses. Travel by steamship was considered luxury. People from Innherred traveled to Trondheim mostly by small boats. This took time, but then they could also spend the nights in the boat while they were in town, and a city trip usually took a week or two. The ‘Nidelven’ was later put into different coastal routes, but that was not a success either. She was too large for fjord shipping and too small for coastal shipping, and was scrapped on 18 October 1895 after many years out of circulation.

We took a commemorative bath for the steamship traffic from the beautifully restored quay. It was ‘Stiftelsen Ytterøy Bygdetun’ who started work on the quay in 2005.

Then it was just a matter of jumping in!

The last boat that went between Trondheim and Steinkjer was the motor ship “Steinkjer”. The boat was purchased by Indherreds Aktie-Dampsibsselskab in 1968, and put into service in December the same year. On 12 September 1974, “Steinkjer” made its last passenger and freight trip between Trondheim and Steinkjer. After 118 years, there was definitely put an end to the continuous passenger traffic by boats to and from Steinkjer. However, the story does not quite end here. If you’re lucky, say in early August, a steamship may still appear.

Sources: WikiStrinda, ‘Gamle Dampen’ by Olaf T. Engvig and Jørstad info board.

Far, far away, in the inner part of the 126 km long Trondheimsfjord lies a pearl: Ytterøya (the Outer Island). You might find this slightly unlogical, but the name is logical enough, since Ytterøya lies outside Inderøy (the Inner Island) (which is actually not an island but a peninsula). The ferry to Ytterøya leaves from Levanger in the southeast, which is twice as far away from the island as Mosvik in the northwest, but somehow that is probably logical too. The island is small enough for you to leave the car at the mainland and take the bicycle instead. Once up from the ferry quay, turn left and cycle around the largest (western) section first. It is beautiful at Ytterøya!

The island is 13.5 km long and 4.3 km wide at its widest, with a varied and sometimes rather hilly landscape. The soil is rich on nutrients, and together with marine deposits, this provides a rich flora. Ytterøya has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years. In earlier times, the island was divided in two (near the church), but land rising has made them connected. Both petroglyphs and burial mounds have been found on Ytterøya.

There are about 50 farms on the island, which has around 500 inhabitants. It is good to live here – also for the animals!

However, the groundwater has been sinking steadily in recent years, and the large chicken slaughterhouse has been decided moved, which gives some concerns about the future. Melkerampa (the Milk Ramp) in Midtbygda (the Village in the Middle) has grown a bit out of the old ways, so there you will find both a shop and a bar and quite a bit in between those two.

There are many beautiful bays to visit for a bath at Ytterøya, but the sandy beaches are somewhat absent. Therefore, you’d better bring your swimming shoes if you don’t like walking on pebbles.

We went to the lighthouse to swim, it’s a beautiful place on the south side of the island, but perhaps a bit private.

Bathing at Ytterøya is ‘very pleasant indeed‘.