Krøttøya is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Harstad Municipality Harstad (; ) is the second-most populated municipality in Troms county, Norway. It is mostly located on the large island of Hinnøya. The municipal center is the Harstad (town), town of Harstad, which is the most populous town in Central Håloga ...

Troms Troms (; ; ; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. It borders Finnmark county to the northeast and Nordland county in the southwest. Norrbotten Län in Sweden is located to the south and further southeast is a shorter border with ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The island is the northernmost inhabited island in the

Andfjorden or is a fjord on the border of Nordland and Troms counties in Norway. It is located in Andøy Municipality, Senja Municipality, Harstad Municipality, and Kvæfjord Municipality. The fjord primarily flows between the large islands of Andøya ...

. It is located in the Meløyvær

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

, consisting of 365 small islands, with over 20 white-sand beaches. Several other islands are connected to Krøttøya by road, but the island group is only accessible by boat. Krøttøy is surrounded by the large islands of

Senja or is an island in Senja Municipality in Troms county, Norway in northern Europe. With an area of , it is the second largest island in Norway (outside of the Svalbard archipelago). It has a wild, mountainous outer (western) side facing the A ...

to the east,

Bjarkøya Bjarkøya is an island in Harstad Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The island is located north of the island of Grytøya and northwest of the island of Sandsøya. The Andfjorden lies to the northwest and the Vågsfjorden lies to the south ...

and

Grytøya or is an island in Harstad Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The island lies just north of the large island of Hinnøya and south of the island of Bjarkøya. It is surrounded by the Vågsfjorden in the east and the Andfjorden in the west ...

to the south, and

Andøya , , or is the northernmost island in the Vesterålen archipelago, situated about inside the Arctic Circle. Andøya is located in Andøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The main population centres on the island include the villages of ...

to the west.

Flora and fauna

During the winter season (October–March) large schools of

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

arrive in

, followed by

orcas The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopoli ...

humpback whales The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

, and

fin whales The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as the finback whale or common rorqual, is a species of baleen whale and the second-longest cetacean after the blue whale. The biggest individual reportedly measured in length, wi ...

Sperm whales The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus '' Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale super ...

and

pilot whales Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, a ...

are encountered all year round.

Attractions and activities

The main attractions are Viking graves and the Meløyvær fortress which is a national museum. The island was of great strategic importance during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

thus holding back a possible naval attack of the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

on the supply lines and defence positions of the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army () is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The ...

Northern Norway Northern Norway (, , ; ) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the three northernmost counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in Northern Norway (from south to no ...

. At full capacity, it had stationed up to 450 soldiers of the Norwegian Army. In 2002 the army left the fort and since then visitors from outside are allowed in the fort without security clearances. Some of the bunkers and military buildings are now privately owned. Valhall, an ex-military summer residence was renovated in 2007 and now serves as a hotel. The main activities are

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. ...

sea eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the subfamily Haliaeetinae of the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Ten extant species exist, currently described w ...

safaris, fishing, sea kayaking, and diving.

Gallery

Midnight sun view from the Nordlystoppen.JPG,

Midnight sun Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...

view from the Nordlystoppen Meløyvær and Krøttøy seen from the Nordlystoppen.JPG, Meløyvær and Krøttøy seen from the Nordlystoppen Nordlystoppen in summer - Krøttøy.jpg, Nordlystoppen (Kollen) 99m, as seen in summer A view to the north from the Nordlysveien - Krøttøy.JPG, A view to the north from the Nordlysveien - Krøttøy A view from Meløya with Andørja in the background.JPG, A view from Meløya with Andørja in the background Whale observation from Nordlystoppen - Krøttøy.JPG, Whale observation from Nordlystoppen - Krøttøy Ancient settlement from the Viking Age - Krøttøy.JPG, Ancient settlement from the Viking Age - Krøttøy Meløyvær Fortress Canon B - Russøya.JPG, Cannon B - Meløyvær Fortress

Transport

Krøttøy is inhabited year-round by a few people and in the summer its population increases dramatically. It is connected daily by a

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

operated by Boreal Transport with the islands of

and

and with the town of Harstad. There is also a bridge connecting Krøttøya with Meløyvær.

References

External links

Aerial images of Krøttøya and Meløyvær on Panoramio, by Lasse TurValhall
Harstad Islands of Troms {{Troms-island-stub