Stråholmen is a small island off the coast of

Kragerø Kragerø () is a town and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Grenland and the smaller Vestmar. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kragerø. The city of Kragerø ...

and Bamble in southern

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The island is about 1.5 km long and 1 km wide at the widest, and lies approximately 2 km north of the island Jomfruland. Stråholmen faces the

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

seas to the east and provides shelter for the inner coast line. The name is Norwegian and literally translates to "The Islet of Straws".

History and settlement

At the center of the island lies a small settlement which today consists of cottages a leisure homes, populated mainly through the summer. The settlement on Stråholmen was originally created by the sailing ship piloting industry of the southern Telemark area, as the location is great for spotting ships arriving from the sea. By the late 1900s the settlement has lost its economical function as except for some sparse agricultural activity. The remainders of the settlement is considered an important part of the cultural inheritance of the shipping industry era of the southern Telemark district.

Facilities and nature

On the north side lies a sheltered dock and beach, frequently utilized as a recreation area for the local population and tourists. The dock is accessible by water taxi from nearby

, Valle (in Bamble) or Langesund, or by private vessel. The central settlement is reachable from the dock by a dirt path. Stråholmen features several plants and tree types which are quite uncommon in the area, which were probably imported through seeds in ballast dirt during the shipping era. The island is great for hiking and the surrounding shores are considered good for sports fishing. The bird life is rich, especially during the migration seasons. Ducks, geese and wading birds are especially abundant. Islands of Vestfold og Telemark {{VestfoldTelemark-geo-stub