Kannesteinen Rock

Kannesteinen stands in the shallows at Oppedal on Vagsoy, a block of rock about three metres high shaped like a wave or a mushroom, wide at the top and pinched to a narrow waist where the sea has worn it away over thousands of years of surf and ice. It sits close enough to shore to walk out to at low water and photograph against the fjord and the mountains behind. The setting is plain: a small car park, a gravel path of a couple of minutes, and a stretch of rocky shoreline. It has become one of the images used to sell this stretch of coast, and it appears far larger in photographs taken from below than it does in person.

What you actually see

• The mushroom rock - a wave-carved block on a narrow stem.
• The shore setting - rocky coastline with the fjord behind.
• The low-water approach - a short walk out over rocks when the tide allows.
• The surrounding peaks - mountains across the water from the point.

When to go

May to September for easy access and better light; the rock is there year-round but winter storms make the shore dangerous. Evening light from the west suits photographs.

Honest expectations

It is one rock and a ten-minute stop, and many visitors find it much smaller than expected. The shoreline is slippery and waves wash over the lower rocks. Parking is a handful of spaces on a narrow road through a residential area.

Nearby

Refviksanden beach is on the same island; Maloy and the Stad peninsula are close by road.