Reine, Lofoten

Reine is a fishing village built on a scattering of low islets and a promontory at the mouth of the Reinefjord, on Moskenesøya near the southern tip of the Lofoten archipelago, well above the Arctic Circle. What makes it extraordinary is not the village alone but the frame around it: red and ochre fishermen's cabins stand along the water on little islands linked by causeways, and directly behind them mountains rise almost vertically out of the fjord, sharp-edged and dark. On a calm day the peaks are mirrored in the still water, and the combination of tiny human settlement and enormous, abrupt landscape is what photographers come for.

The cabins are rorbuer, the traditional huts in which visiting fishermen lodged during the great Lofoten cod season. Reine itself has been a trading post since 1743 and long lived by the fishing fleet and its processing plants. The village, with its small church, has fewer than three hundred inhabitants, packed onto an area of well under a square kilometre.

The finest view is from above. Reinebringen, the peak rising straight behind the village, reaches 448 metres, and between 2016 and 2019 a stone staircase was built up its face, replacing a steep and muddy scramble. From the top the whole composition lies below: the village on its islets, the fjord winding inland between the peaks, and the open sea beyond. In the late 1970s the Norwegian weekly magazine Allers named Reine the most beautiful village in Norway, and few who have looked down from Reinebringen would argue.

Getting there

Reine lies just off the European route E10, which runs the length of Lofoten. The nearest airport is Leknes Airport (LKN), about 33 km away in a straight line. The car ferry from Bodø, about 91 km away, lands at Moskenes, around 5 km from Reine; the crossing takes a little over three hours.