Arnøy, home to magnificent Arctic and maritime nature, is situated right out towards the Lopp Sea. The landscape on Arnøy varies from gentle beaches to high alpine peaks 1100 m above sea level with green mountainsides, crevices and narrow rivers. Arnøy has many traces from the last ice age, something which provides participants an insight into how the mighty Scandinavian ice cap formed the nature. The Tyvdalen Landscape Protected Area features moraines formed for 10 000 to 17,000 years ago!

The island features several deep cirques, u-shaped amphitheatre-like valleys formed by glacial erosion. There are also impressive views of the Lyngen Alps and its many glaciers.There is a rice bird life with sea birds and the white-tailed eagle. The name Arnøy originates from the Norse name Ornoy (Eagle Island) used in the Iron Age. For as long as one can remember, the Saami people from Kautokeino have each spring brought their herds of reindeer to summer grazing areas on Arnøy, which they describe as the best grazing areas in Northern Norway. As a result, you will encounter reindeer and their calves here, as well as the local sheep and lambs.

The island of archaeological monuments in Troms!
Arnøy is located in the centre of the fiords in th North Troms basin. Folk from the fiords came here for summer fishing or hunting eggs and birds, with a short distance out to Nord-Fugløy. Measured by the number of archaeological monuments, Arnøy is by far and away Troms county’s top archaeological island. No other island has as many protected traces from the Stone Age (the period from 4000 to 9000 years ago) and the Iron Age. On our walk we will be doing only 7 stops. We will
visit a village which is 4000-6000 years old and a 1500-year-old summer fishing village. At Akkarvik, you will discover one of the best sites to study prehistoric boathouse tofts in Northern Norway. This is the place to form a picture of what boats looked like in the Iron Age. Akkarvik also features a natural harbour where fishing boats also in modern time can stay without a breakwater.

So-called hellegrops, pits lined with flat stones, are Arctic cultural relics found only from Arnøy further northwards along the Finnmark coast and up to the White Sea. The dissemination shows that this area has a joint maritime culture where the hellegrops were utilised to extract “oil” from seal and whale blubber, an exceedingly old form of “oil technology” dating from 1000 to 2000 years ago or, in other words, in the (Norse) Iron Age. At this time, there was only one Norse settlement
on Karlsøy’s outer coast. However, coastal Saami inhabited the inner parts of the Lyngen, Reisa and Kvænangen fiords. “Lappeguden” (the Saami god), the name of a mountain in Langfjorden, is a reminder of the days when the ancient Saami culture had its sacred stones around the island.

The “oil” was almost certainly produced in a close collaboration between the coastal Saami and Norse groups and utilised for lighting, warmth and impregnation. The many hellegrops on Arnøy indicate that the level of production was significant and that the oil was exported to more populated areas further south. According to Norse chief Ottar (890 AD), Norse chiefs owned their own large ships and sailed them from Northern Norway to Southern Scandinavia or the continent. In this way they could transport extremely large quantities of oil from North Troms as cargo.

Our excursion ends at Årviksand, where there are a host of prehistoric culture heritage reminders fromthe production of ”oil” including hellegrops and fishing settlements from the Iron Age and Middle Ages. Out towards the open sea is “Kirktofta”, a house toft of a church which must be from the catholic period, prior to 1536 AD. The open landscape here invites participants to see the history at Arnøy in perspective. There are huge contrasts between how the fishermen landed their row boats on the sandy beach “Sanden” and the breakwaters which today surround fishing boats at Årviksand. The breakwaters hereare built as an artificial harbour to protect the modern motorboats from the waves and open sea. When storms set in, the waves here are among the most powerful in Europe, something which has several times led to major damage on the outermost breakwater. To remedy this, extremely large stone blockshave been utilised, evidence of the enormous power the open sea here possesses during big storms.