A little white lighthouse with a red top, standing alone on a bare skerry at the edge of the open sea, its stone base painted an unexplained green.
Asenvågøy fyr — "fyr" is Norwegian for lighthouse — is a small coastal light station on a bare island at the mouth of the Lauvøyfjord, on the outer Fosen coast of Trøndelag in central Norway. It was built in 1921 to guide the herring fleet and to give boats coming in off the open sea a landfall to steer for. A 14-metre white wooden tower stands joined to the keeper's house, its stone foundation painted a curious green. Automated and left unmanned since 1975, it sits uninhabited among low skerries, reachable only by boat.
The word "fyr" simply means lighthouse in Norwegian, and this one was raised in 1921 for a very practical reason: fish. These waters, between the villages of Stoksund and Lysøysundet, were rich herring grounds, and each season a fleet of small boats worked them. The new light was an entrance light — a beacon set at the mouth of the Lauvøyfjord to steer the herring fleet safely through the grounds and to give boats coming in off Frohavet, the wide half-open sea to the west, a fixed point to aim for in the dark or in weather. Beside the tower lies a natural harbour reckoned one of the best-sheltered on the whole coast, a rare place where a boat could put in whatever the sea was doing.
Life on the rock was spare and remote. A lighthouse keeper and his family lived in the 1½-storey house joined to the tower, tending the light through the long dark winters this far north. In 1952 the station got its own diesel generators for electricity — a small luxury on an island with no mains anything. Then, in 1975, the light was automated and the keeper left for good; a machine now does what a family once did by hand.
One oddity gives the place its nickname. The station's stone base is painted green — said to be the only green-based lighthouse in the country — and nobody seems to know why, so locals simply call it "the green lighthouse." Today the little station is looked after by a local heritage foundation, Stiftelsen Frohavet, which runs guided summer tours of the old keeper's home. Come by boat and you find white timber, a red lantern and a green plinth on a granite islet, ringed by skerries and open sea.
The making of Asenvågøy fyr
Asenvågøy Lighthouse
A 14-metre white wooden tower with a red top, joined to the keeper's house — an entrance light raised in 1921 on a bare skerry at the mouth of the Lauvøyfjord.
The green lighthouse
Its stone foundation is painted an unexplained green — reputedly the country's only green-based light station, and the source of its nickname "the green lighthouse."
The sheltered harbour
The station's landing sits in one of the coast's best-sheltered natural harbours — a rare spot where boats could put in whatever the weather blew off the open sea.
The herring-fishing waters
The light was built to guide the herring fleet through the fishing grounds between Stoksund and Lysøysundet, and to serve as a landfall for boats coming in off Frohavet.
The Frohavet skerries
The station stands outermost in the Frohavet skerry archipelago, ringed by low granite islets and open sea, and is reachable only by boat.
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From keeper's home to visitor lighthouse
Automated and de-manned in 1975, the station is now cared for by the Frohavet foundation, which runs summer guided tours of the old keeper's home.
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