Sørgattet: Bjørnhamna

Bjørn­ham­na in Sør­gat­tet as a vir­tu­al Pan­ora­ma tour

Sør­gat­tet

Sør­gat­tet is a short strait sepa­ra­ting the main island of Spits­ber­gen from the small island of Dans­køya. It has cur­ves, cur­r­ents and some shal­lows and it is accord­in­gly not pas­sa­ble for lar­ge ves­sels.

Bjørn­ham­na (1)

The litt­le bay Bjørn­ham­na (“Bear har­bour”) is situa­ted in the midd­le of the strai­ght Sør­gat­tet on the sou­thern side. For small boats, natu­re has crea­ted a well shel­te­red natu­ral har­bour here.

Bjørn­ham­na (2)

Bjørn­ham­na is the first good natu­ral har­bour as you sail north from Mag­da­le­n­efjord, from whe­re it is a short distance only. Bjørn­ham­na is accord­in­gly a natu­ral step­ping stone from the nort­hern west coast to the nor­thwes­tern cor­ner. It was natu­ral for trap­pers to build a good hut in such a posi­ti­on which was both stra­te­gi­cal­ly advan­ta­ge­ous and con­ve­ni­ent. It was built in 1925 by Georg Bjørn­nes, a well-known hun­ter back then, on the site of an older hut. Several smal­ler huts in Mag­da­le­n­efjord and fur­ther south and on Dans­køya fur­ther north also belon­ged to the hun­ting area.

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