Vøringsfossen

Vøringsfossen is the waterfall with which Norway introduced itself to the world. The river Bjoreio, draining off the high plateau of Hardangervidda, reaches the lip of the Måbødalen canyon and falls about 182 metres in total, the greater part of it in a single free plunge of well over 140 metres into a narrow, spray-filled pool. The setting is as important as the water: the canyon is a raw cleft in the edge of the plateau, with sheer walls on both sides, so the fall is seen not from below but from the rim, looking down into a gorge that seems too deep for its width.

Its fame began in 1821, when the astronomer Christopher Hansteen made his way to the fall and wrote about it, and within decades it had become a national symbol and one of the country's first real tourist attractions. A bridle path was laid out in 1872 for English travellers, and visitors also climbed a stairway of around 1,500 steps up the side of the valley. In 1891 the Fossli Hotel opened on the edge of the canyon, looking straight across at the fall; its timber buildings, expanded later by the architect Frederik Konow Lund, are still in use. Cruise ships in the Hardangerfjord made Vøringsfossen a standard excursion from around 1900.

The river is now regulated for hydropower by the Sima scheme, with the Sysen dam upstream, but the licence requires a minimum flow of 12 cubic metres per second in summer, so the fall runs at full voice in the season when most people see it. In 2020 a new pedestrian bridge designed by Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk opened across the top of the canyon: a 47-metre steel span with a flight of 99 steps, set in place by helicopter, that lets you stand directly above the gorge and look into the fall from both sides. A network of railed viewpoints near Fossli and at the old Vøringfoss cafeteria completes the circuit along the rim.

Getting there

Vøringsfossen lies on National Road 7 (the Hardangervidda scenic route between Oslo and Bergen), about 18 km east of the village of Eidfjord, roughly 20 minutes by car; the Fossli viewpoints are about 1 km off the main road. Bergen is the nearest city and the usual starting point, with the Nesttun district about 105 km away in a straight line. The nearest airport in a straight line is Stord Airport, Sørstokken (SRP), about 128 km away, but most travellers fly into Bergen and drive east along the Hardangerfjord.