Støtt, a tiny Norwegian archipelago just north of the Arctic Circle, is being repackaged as an escape from modern life by Eva Ann Andersen, whose family has owned Støtt Brygge since 1897. The island once sheltered fishing boats blown off course in the Norwegian Sea and supplied fishermen heading north to the Arctic cod grounds of Lofoten. Now it’s being sold as refuge, with hotel rooms starting at 1,990 NOK, or £155/$207, a night, while the old trading post becomes a boutique base for visitors chasing silence, sea eagles and the midnight Sun.
From fishing post to curated escape
Andersen told the traveller that Støtt can offer “a different kind of refuge now, not from violent seas but from stress, overwork and modern urban life.” That line says plenty about the new economy of retreat. The island’s old role was practical and brutal: fishermen came to buy fishing equipment, bread, sugar and flour, and to have a drink, before continuing north. Today, the old shop counter serves as the bar, the bakery has become part of the hotel, and the island’s history is packaged alongside lace curtains, framed newspaper cuttings and Lofoten Seaweed products in the bathroom.
Andersen grew up on Støtt, moved to Oslo in her twenties, built an international corporate career, and returned in 2011 exhausted. She said she saw new potential in the place she had left behind. That potential now includes 16 rooms across restored cabins, a storehouse and a bakery building, plus kayaking trips, Arctic sauna sessions, RIB boat excursions to the Svartisen glacier and dinner in one of the World War Two tunnels. The island’s old fish factory is also being converted into luxury suites, with the stated aim of attracting more international visitors while creating year-round work for locals.
The island’s population has fallen from around 120 people to 25 permanent residents today. From the 1980s, innovation in the fishing industry brought larger, safer boats and trawlers, and fishermen no longer needed to stop at trading posts like Støtt en route. The small-scale fishing industry collapsed. What replaced it is not a revival of local production, but tourism, with visitors invited to cycle, kayak, snowshoe, watch birds, visit the museum and take boat trips to hidden coves.
Heritage, war and the business of memory
Støtt’s former German coastal fort still sits on the island as one of its most striking historical features. The complex includes concrete bunkers and tunnels built into the hillside after the island was occupied in 1941, along with an underground hospital, ammunition stores and gun emplacements. Around 200 soldiers once lived there. The island’s wartime architecture now sits inside the same leisure economy that sells “off-the-beaten-track” feeling and “connection to land and meeting local people.”
Andersen said, “Nobody believed I would stay,” and added, “But I carried hope when I came back.” Her daughter Benedicte, back from Oslo for the summer, said, “You can’t beat the nature here. Oslo has so much stress, but here there is a Zen mode. You don’t think about going to the gym, just going outside and seeing the mountains is enough.” The language is gentle. The business model is not. A place once shaped by fishing, trade and wartime occupation is now being sold as a premium retreat for people who can afford to arrive by plane, ferry and hotel booking.
Bird watching, Northern Lights trips, stargazing and the midnight-Sun period all form part of the offer. Andersen said, “The greatest aim for me is to rebuild this island’s society.” She hopes tourism will draw artists and writers and stimulate a region that has been forgotten for too long. For now, Støtt remains what it has always been: a place of refuge from the storms beyond its shores. Only now the storms are economic as much as meteorological, and the refuge comes with a price tag.
Bath’s lido and the public bill
In Bath, Cleveland Pools will “definitely reopen” despite flood damage that shut it in January 2024, only four months after it welcomed swimmers back following a multi-million-pound restoration. The charitable trust that runs Britain’s oldest lido said detailed investigations found both mechanical and structural damage, meaning major repairs and significant fundraising are needed. Peter Askew, chair of Cleveland Pools Trust, said, “We are moving as quickly and responsibly as we can towards reopening the pools. It’s definitely going to happen.”
The trust says repair work could start in early 2028. Cleveland Pools first opened in 1815 and reopened in September 2023 for the first time in almost 40 years after a lengthy restoration project backed by millions of pounds of public funding. Askew said floodwater entered the plant room door and that, secondly, when the pool was emptied of floodwater, the groundwater level was not properly managed, which led to further damage. He said this caused the whole pool structure to lift, breaking some of the pipework underneath. Uneven paving stones around the edge of the pool reveal further structural problems beneath the surface.
Last month, Cleveland Pools Trust regained legal operation from Fusion Lifestyle, the lido operator running the site when the flooding happened. Fusion Lifestyle announced in April that it had appointed administrators after a “prolonged period of financial difficulty.” Askew said the trust has started a public consultation that will run throughout the year, reaching out to as many different communities as possible, before fundraising begins to get on with the work early in 2028. The language is civic and careful. The damage is already there, the money has already been spent, and the repairs are still years away.