Ytre Norskøya

Ytre Norskøya 1

Ytre Norskøya („Outer Norwegian Island“) is one of the small islands near the northwestern corner of Spitsbergen. It is mostly rocky and steep. There are remains of a 17th century whaling station near the shore on the southern side. The whalers used the mountain on the island as a lookout point.

Ytre Norskøya 2

The ascent is steep and rocky, but the top offers great views over the surrounding islands, including Klovningen which is almost cut into two. Willem Barentsz recognized it as a prominent landmark already in 1596.

Ytre Norskøya 3

There is an iron cross on top of the 151 m high mountain. The exact history of this cross is not known. The name of the mountain tells where the whalers came from who hand their station on Ytre Norskøya: Zeeussche Uytkik, the Zealand lookout point, obviously a reference to the Dutch province Zeeland. This has been reduced to „Utkik“ (lookout) on the modern map. One more reason to mention the old name here.

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