SummitClimbs Field Note: Torghatten is a 258 m granite dome on the island of Torget in southwestern Brønnøy, Nordland, famous for the hole that runs straight through it. A well-built path takes about 20 minutes up to the hole; going up one side, down the other and around the mountain takes about an hour. Around 100,000 people visit every year, making it one of the easiest and most unusual short hikes on the Helgeland coast.
A Hole Through the Mountain
Norwegian Wikipedia gives the tunnel as 160 m long, 35 m high and 20 m wide; English Wikipedia gives 166 m long, with an average width of 18 m and an average height of 41 m, its midpoint about 115 m above today’s sea level. You can walk up to the tunnel on the prepared path and through it on a natural path.
The mountain is foliated granite from the Proterozoic, with the layering standing almost vertical, which creates natural zones of weakness. For a long time the tunnel was explained mainly by wave erosion, but research by Jakob Johan Møller and Per Tore Fredriksen points to a more complex history. They found almost none of the rounded cobbles that heavy wave action would leave, and instead found signs of glacial work: ice-sculpted bedrock below the eastern entrance, a channel probably carved by meltwater under the ice, and polished surfaces inside the tunnel. Around 20,000–22,000 years ago the coast here lay under roughly 1,000 m of ice. When it retreated about 12,000 years ago, the sea stood about 100 m higher than today, but still about 15 m below the floor of the tunnel’s midpoint, so waves had only a limited role. Their conclusion is that the tunnel formed through several processes over time.
Torghatten at a Glance
- Location: island of Torget, southwestern Brønnøy, Nordland
- Height: 258 m
- The hole: 160–166 m long, about 35–41 m high and 18–20 m wide, depending on source
- Time: about 20 minutes up to the hole; about 1 hour for the loop over and around the mountain
- Path: well built up to the hole; natural path through it
- Visitors: about 100,000 a year
The Name and the Legend
The name combines the island, Torget, with hatten, “the hat”, after the mountain’s shape. Torghatten belongs to the legend of the Seven Sisters and the trolls of the Nordland coast. In one version, Vågakallen was to shoot an arrow at Lekamøya; Skarsfjellgubben took off his hat and threw it into the arrow’s path. The arrow went through the hat, and the hat landed on Torget. In another version, told in English Wikipedia, it was the troll Hestmannen chasing Lekamøya, and the troll king of Sømna who threw his hat to save her. Either way, the hat became the mountain with a hole in the middle.
The 1988 Air Disaster
On 6 May 1988, Widerøe Flight 710, a Dash 7 flying from Namsos to Brønnøysund, crashed into the mountain. All 36 people on board died, making it one of the most serious accidents in Norwegian civil aviation. Torghatten has also given its name to one of Norway’s major ferry operators, based in nearby Brønnøysund.
Before You Go
- Footwear: the path is easy, but rock can be slippery when wet; wear shoes with good grip.
- Through the hole: the way through the tunnel follows a natural path, not the built one.
- Weather: check the forecast on yr.no before you go.
The SummitClimbs Take
Torghatten is not a summit to conquer but a natural wonder to walk through: 20 minutes up a good path to a hole through a granite mountain, shaped by ice and water over thousands of years. Walk the loop for the full picture, and take a moment for the 36 people lost here in 1988.
Facts from Norwegian Wikipedia (Torghatten) and Wikipedia. Always check current conditions before you go.
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