Kirkenes – Arctic adventures on the edge of Norway

The turning point of our Coastal Express route, Kirkenes lies in the extreme northeast part of Norway – further east than Istanbul and just a few kilometres from Russia. This spirited Arctic town blends cultures, cuisines and languages, surrounded by forests and wetlands.

You might spot lynx and wolverine out here. Even brown bears – this is their biggest stronghold in Norway. But the star of the show is the king crab. Massive, meaty and straight from the Barents Sea.

Before Norway’s borders were fixed in 1826, Kirkenes was Sámi land known as Akkalanjárga and loosely shared by Russia, Sweden and Norway. Even today, Russian cultural traces remain. 

Tiny Kirkenes lived on fishing until its fortunes changes when iron ore was discovered in 1902. The town became a major supplier for artillery raw materials during World War I. Four years later, the Sydvaranger Mining Company set up a permanent smelting plant and workers came from near and far. Kirkenes thrived.

But in World War II, its iron ore wealth became the source of the town’s misfortune. Germany invaded in 1940, turning Kirkenes into a strategic base near Murmansk. Kirkenes claimed the dark title of being the most-bombed town in Europe, after Malta, as the Soviets fought to regain the town.

Andersgrotta, a civilian shelter, tells the story, and the Grenselandmuseet shows the devastating effects of the war on the town. When Soviet forces liberated Kirkenes in 1944, they found just 13 buildings standing.

In the post-war decades, the iron mines powered local prosperity once more. Kirkenes was the first town in northern Norway to build an airport, swimming pool and tarmacked streets. That boom ended in the 1990s when the market for iron crashed and the mines closed.

Today, Kirkenes is an Arctic frontier town turned dynamic, multicultural hub. The population numbers only several thousand but they come from dozens of different nations – something you’ll notice in the bilingual road signs. It’s a great place to head out into the Arctic wilderness on all sorts of adventures.

Located 248 miles north of the Arctic Circle, snow is a guaranteed visitor in Kirkenes from November to April. The Polar Night is so pronounced here you can see the Northern Lights from as early as late August to late March.

“Weather conditions are different every day of every month,” says Milivoj Kržanić from the Snowhotel 365. “We don't really have spring, because winter lasts until May and then nature awakens with an explosion of colours in June beneath the Midnight Sun, which stops setting around 21 May.”

Summer is short and on the cooler side. Kirkenes doesn’t receive much rain, so days tend to be dry.

Thanks to the surrounding taiga forest of pine, spruce and larch, autumn is a beautiful riot of russets, golds and auburns. These seasonal extremes allow for a plethora of both summer and winter activities.