{"id":1221,"date":"2019-07-10T12:24:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T12:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/?post_type=artikler&p=336"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:22:13","slug":"northern-lights-nyksund-has-turned-its-lights-off","status":"publish","type":"artikler","link":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/artikkel\/northern-lights-nyksund-has-turned-its-lights-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Lights? Nyksund has turned its lights off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tThe fishing village of Nyksund in the Vester\u00e5len Islands was abandoned in the 1960s, and since then the place has been generally dark in winter. But the darkness is a great advantage when you\u2019re chasing the Northern Lights. If you want to see the Northern Lights as an independent traveller, without a busy programme of excursions and activities, the solitary peace of Nyksund offers a fine alternative. \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

The fishing village of Nyksund succumbed to the demands of the modern age in the 1960s and was abandoned. With a harbour too small to accommodate modern boats, one of Norway\u2019s leading fishing communities packed its bags and moved to the busy, modern port of Myre. But, after lying deserted for some years, Nyksund has been given a new chance as a haven for people seeking to get away from it all. Now Nyksund is relatively lively in the summer, attracting walkers, pleasure boat-owners and former Nyksund residents and their descendants. In the winter, however, only 20 people live in Nyksund, so you can really feel the silence and the peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 1970 Nyksund decided to turn off its lights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nyksund was the second place in Northern Norway to have electric street lighting, beaten only by Hammerfest. But that was then. Today\u2019s new inhabitants enjoy being in the absolute dark, and have deliberately chosen not to turn the street lighting back on. And so it is virtually pitch-black in Nyksund. The only atmosphere is created by the lights twinkling from a few house windows. Over towards the north-west, where most Northern Lights sightings occur, there are positively no light sources other than the moon and the stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\t

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