Rost

Rost is the last of the Lofoten islands, about a hundred kilometres out from the mainland, and it inverts the Lofoten image completely: instead of peaks, the main island is almost entirely flat and low, less than eleven metres at its highest point, with the mountains reserved for the uninhabited skerries to the south. Those outer rocks hold one of the largest seabird concentrations in Norway, historically counted in the millions, though puffin numbers have fallen dramatically since the 1970s. The islands live from stockfish: cod dried on racks through the winter and exported, mostly to Italy, a trade running back to the medieval period and marked by a 1432 shipwreck that stranded a Venetian merchant here.

What you actually see

• The flat main island - low ground barely above sea level, unlike the rest of Lofoten.
• The bird skerries - uninhabited outer rocks holding vast colonies.
• The stockfish racks - cod drying frames used through the winter and spring.
• The Italian connection - a stockfish trade running to Italy for centuries.

When to go

May to August for the birds and the best ferry weather; the drying racks are full from February to May, which is the working season. Boat trips to the outer skerries run in summer only.

Honest expectations

The ferry from Bodo takes about four hours in open water and is regularly cancelled. Accommodation is minimal. Seabird numbers have collapsed at several colonies, and the millions cited in older sources no longer reflect what is there.

Nearby

Vaeroy lies between Rost and the main chain; Bodo is the mainland port.