Lofoten, Norway #12: fishermen's cabins

[Mike Buckley]

I have already posted a thread displaying photos of fish racks used to hang the cod outdoors to dry. In earlier centuries, the employers provided the fishermen with a cabin, called a rorbu (singular) and rorbuer (plural) in Norwegian.

The fishermen would row their boats to their rorbuer, which were built partially over the water for easy access. Beginning in the last half of the 20th century, all of the extant rorbuer have now been upgraded with modern amenities for rental to tourists. Many small communities of rorbuer have been built since then purely for the tourists; I suspect that most units in use today were originally built for the tourist trade but I haven't been able to verify that.

All of the rorbuer have wooden exteriors and the historic units also have wooden interiors. Most are painted a brownish red color on the outside but some are a mustard color. Most roofs today are turf or slate but some are corrugated metal.

Photo 1
We stayed for a week in the rorbu on the right. Both rorbuer were originally built for fishermen, not tourists. Notice that the tide is near the high watermark. There were four tides each day that changed about 3 meters (10 feet).



Photo 2



Photo 3: typical slate roof



Photo 4: typical turf roof though gone awry

[Donald]

Mike - You are educating and informing us as well as producing appealing images. Great stuff.

[nimitzbenedicto]

I have already posted a thread displaying photos of fish racks used to hang the cod outdoors to dry. In earlier centuries, the employers provided the fishermen with a cabin, called a rorbu (singular) and rorbuer (plural) in Norwegian.

The fishermen would row their boats to their rorbuer, which were built partially over the water for easy access. Beginning in the last half of the 20th century, all of the extant rorbuer have now been upgraded with modern amenities for rental to tourists. Many small communities of rorbuer have been built since then purely for the tourists; I suspect that most units in use today were originally built for the tourist trade but I haven't been able to verify that.

All of the rorbuer have wooden exteriors and the historic units also have wooden interiors. Most are painted a brownish red color on the outside but some are a mustard color. Most roofs today are turf or slate but some are corrugated metal.

Photo 1
We stayed for a week in the rorbu on the right. Both rorbuer were originally built for fishermen, not tourists. Notice that the tide is near the high watermark. There were four tides each day that changed about 3 meters (10 feet).





Photo 3: typical slate roof



Photo 4: typical turf roof though gone awry

Awesome..... really like photo 1.

The one with the guy going inside seems out of place with the others.

just me.......

[bnnrcn]

Another nice set of images

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

Victor: I included the second image to show the classic mustard color of rorbuer and other wooden buildings found in Lofoten's fishing villages.