Torsken, Senja – a remote community on Norway’s ‘fairytale island’

Tucked away in Torskenfjorden on the wild west side of Senja island, the remote fishing village of Torsken comprises a handful of homes and workshops plus a few small piers lined with fishing boats. It’s the perfect base from which to explore Norway’s second-biggest island.

Torsken’s history is shared with the other fishing villages and trading stations dotted across Senja. The island takes its name from the Old Norse, meaning to ‘split apart,’ perhaps in reference to its fjord-filled coastline that looks as if a dragon has clawed at the land.

Exposed to the elements, locals survived thanks to Norway’s richest fishing grounds for cod, haddock, and halibut. In fact, from 1925 to 1935, Hamn I Senja, 15 minutes north of Torsken, was one of Norway’s largest fish processing stations. It later became the site for one of the world’s first hydroelectric power stations.

(Image copyright: Bård Løken - www.nordnorge.com)

Once its own municipality, Torsken was merged into the new Senja Municipality as recently as 2020. This came with a new coat of arms bearing the Northern Lights streaking over the mountaintops.

The town is still kept afloat by fishing. For the first few months of every year, locals launch their boats to reel up skrei, a migratory cod unique to northern Norway. Their kids even come to the processing plants to cut the tongues from the cod to earn pocket money.

“We do not go fishing for sport, but to fetch our dinner,” says local Jørgen Wang, Marketing Manager at the family-run Senja By Heart. For a taste of that sea-to-mouth way of life, he recommends, “Visit the pub at Torsken Brygge for fresh shrimps on the patio.”

“Arctic weather is best described as unpredictable!” says Jørgen. “You never have the same one year as you do the next, but we very often have nice weather in March/April, or maybe it just feels that way because we’re happy to see the end of winter! Spring in Senja is a time when everything returns to life.”

Rain is a regular visitor, peaking in October but light most of May and June when the Midnight Sun shines. The landscapes are lush and the daylight hours unending, ideal for long hikes until late July.

Snow has been known to fall eight months of the year in Senja (January to May and October to December). Of those, February tends to be the coldest and whitest.

Senja is also positioned directly beneath the Auroral Oval that rings the North Pole, meaning chances of seeing the Northern Lights are very high when Polar Night descends between November and January. Incredibly, they’ve even been spotted as late as August here.