Hiorthfjellgruva: Ørneredet

“Ørneredet” is located 580 metres high on Hiorthfjellet.

Ørneredet, ‘the eagle’s nest’, was the miners’ mess and accommodation at Hiorthfjellgruve (Sneheim) high up on Hiorthfjellet, 582 metres above Adventfjord. In the past, the entire complex was officially called Hiorthfjellgruve (Hiorthfjellgrube), unofficially it was usually called Sneheim and today many refer to it as ‘Ørneredet’, i.e. ‘the eagle’s nest’. It fits quite well, even if the name has no real historical reference. And there are no eagles in Spitsbergen either, but who cares …

The actual settlement was Hiorthhamn down by the fjord. Hiorthhamn, Sneheim and Ørneredet (the division of the latter two into two villages is somewhat artificial and is more for the sake of clarity on these pages) thus formed a functional complex that belonged together. On the pages about Hiorthhamn and Sneheim you can also read more about the history of the whole Hiorthhamn mine complex, which will not be repeated here.

The Hiorthfjellgruve: in front are the remains of the actual mine workings,
the building at the back is the ‘Ørneredet’, the workers’ mess and accommodation.
Everything is located a good 580 metres above sea level at Hiorthfjellet.

The workers’ accommodation at the Hiorthfjellet mine

The location of the first panoramic photo is in the area where the workers’ accommodation was once located. Several dozen workers were housed here, sometimes staying for months at a time and not moving further away than the pit, a few hundred metres to the west.

There is practically nothing left of the accommodation, just rubble scattered around the site. There were once five barracks.

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Mess room building

The only building still standing is the one with the mess rooms.

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It is hard to say why the mess room is the only building still standing, or why, in contrast, the other buildings have been completely lost. It was probably repaired from time to time, potentially including the years before 1992.

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In 1992, some simple but important repairs were carried out at the mess room building in order to preserve its substance – also with the help of the mining company’s heirs, who were still the landowners in 1992. In 2016, the area – 217.6 square kilometres – was sold to the Norwegian state for a whopping 300 million kroner. But that’s another story.

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Since 2019, the sports club in Longyearbyen, Svalbard Turn, has been authorised by the Sysselmannen (now Sysselmester) to use the hut as a tour destination.

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In 2023/24, however, it turned out that the structural condition of the exhibition centre building no longer permitted its continued use, so that the Sysselmester withdrew the right of use from the sports club.

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It is likely that ‘Ørneredet’, the eagle’s nest, will now also fall into disrepair. It is not known that any conservation measures are planned.

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Which is very unfortunate, because the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ is truly unique. Not only because of its location at an altitude of around 580 metres with a magnificent view of the Adventfjord, Longyearbyen and the surrounding area, but also because it is part of one of the largest industrial monument complexes in Spitsbergen, together with the mine (‘Sneheim’) and Hiorthhamn, the village down by the Adventfjord.