Wild Harbor

The house · Fol. II

A keeper's house, kept.

The eastern shore at Tromsø, the keeper's house and boathouse seen from the sound
The eastern shore, Tromsø sound.

The house began as a keeper's dwelling and a small boathouse on the eastern shore, put up in the 1880s to serve the sound. We took it over after a long quiet and rebuilt it slowly, the timbers where we could, the roofs and the flues where we had to. What you meet now is the same room the keeper met: whitewashed walls, exposed rafters, a stove kept lit through the shoulder seasons.

We are a small house, three rooms and a winter-garden pavilion at the eastern gable. There is no front desk in the usual sense; we open the door, we carry your bag up, we show you the ladder off the jetty and the tin where the waffle irons live. The rest of the day is yours.

Our year is ordered by the light. From the middle of May the sun stops setting; by the end of July it begins to dip again; by September the first darkness returns and we close the pavilion for the winter. The almanac at the back of this page tells you which weekends are open.

Rooms · Fol. III

Three rooms, named for lighthouses of the coast.

Each has its own weather. Weekend arrangements are sold as named bundles, the room, the waffle hour, the sauna raft, the car up the mountain road on Saturday morning, on enquiry.

Corner room with two sound-facing windows and a whitewashed hearth

Second landing · corner

The Kvalnes Suite

Corner rooms on the second landing, two windows onto the sound and a wood-burning stove set into a whitewashed hearth. The bath opens to a private stair down to the jetty ladder.

  • Sound-facing double aspect
  • Wood-burning stove, laid each morning
  • Private stair to the jetty ladder
  • Sleeps two

Weekend arrangement, the Kvalnes bundle, on enquiry.

Enquire
Loft room under exposed rafters with a north-facing window seat

Boathouse · top floor

The Andenes Loft

The top of the boathouse rebuilt as a single room under exposed rafters, with a reading bench facing north and a sheepskin-piled window seat for the small hours of June. Sleeps two, or a family of four with the bunk alcove opened.

  • North window and reading bench
  • Sheepskin window seat
  • Bunk alcove for two children
  • Sleeps two to four

Weekend arrangement, the Andenes bundle, on enquiry.

Enquire
Ground-floor room around an old keeper's desk with undyed linen and a stove

Ground floor · off the hall

The Fruholmen Room

A ground-floor room built around the old keeper's desk, with a low bed dressed in undyed linen and a stove kept lit through the shoulder seasons. Steps to the coffee counter and the waffle hour without leaving the house.

  • Ground floor, step-free from the hall
  • Keeper's desk under the window
  • Undyed linen, wool throws
  • Sleeps two

Weekend arrangement, the Fruholmen bundle, on enquiry.

Enquire
Glazed winter-garden room with potted birches and lamp-warm gaming tables
The Sletnes Pavilion, at the eastern gable.

The Casino · Fol. V

The Casino, the winter-garden pavilion.

The Sletnes Pavilion is a glazed room of potted birches and lamp-warm tables at the eastern gable of the house. It is open in the evenings to house guests, from eight until late, and the door is left ajar so you can wander in from the coffee counter. Four tables, no crowd, and the light of the long summer through the roof glass.

  • Roulette — a single European wheel under the north lamp, spun from twenty hundred; table stakes kept modest.
  • Blackjack — two shoes, dealt at the birch table by the west window; table stakes kept modest.
  • Baccarat — one small punto banco table, most evenings after nine; table stakes kept modest.
  • Poker — a private table for up to six, arranged in advance; table stakes kept modest.
  • HoursEvenings, twenty hundred until late
  • AccessResident guests of the house
  • DressA jacket asked of gentlemen after eight; otherwise as you like
  • EntryEighteen and over. Guests who look under twenty-five will be asked for identification.

Stewardship · Fol. VII

What we keep, and how.

The shore

The jetty and the boathouse stand on a shore that was here before us and will be here after. We repair with local timber, we do not extend, and we leave the tide line to the tide.

The larder

Almost everything on our breakfast table travels less than a hundred kilometres. The mill, the goat farm, the smokehouse and the berry pickers are named on the menu card, in that order.

The house

We heat with a ground-source loop under the yard and top up with wood from a working forest at Signaldalen. Linen is line-dried in summer, and the wool comes from Kvaløya sheep.