The history of Rörö

The first traces – Håkan’s cabin and King Haakon IV

At the top of the northern part of Rörö lies Håkan’s cabin, a place that has long aroused both curiosity and stories. According to tradition, it is associated with the Norwegian king Haakon IV Håkonsson, who reigned between 1217 and 1263.
Legend has it that the king anchored his fleet off Rörö during his voyages to Denmark, and that the island was used as a temporary resting place and for provisioning.

The mountain is believed to have served as a lookout point, where fires were lit to warn of enemy fleets at sea. The many rock formations in the area may be the remains of ancient graves or defensive structures, signs that people lived here long before the island got its name. A Norwegian tax register from 1528 mentions a man who lived on Rörö, and in 1594, the Bishop of Oslo, Jens Nilsson, noted during his visit that ‘Rörön is a stone’s throw north of Hyppeln’. After the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, when Bohuslän became Swedish, Rörö became part of Sweden, but the memory of its Norwegian past lives on in both legends and place names.
Håkanstugan remains as a symbol of the island’s oldest history, where myth and reality meet in the wind over the sea.

School – from mobile teaching to school house

De första barnen på Rörö fick sin undervisning under enkla former.
Från mitten av 1800-talet bedrevs skola i ambulerande form, ofta i lotshem eller andra tillgängliga lokaler.
År 1863 byggdes öns första riktiga skolhus, strax väster om platsen där den nuvarande skolan ligger. Den lilla byggnaden markerade ett första steg mot organiserad undervisning och innebar att barnen inte längre var beroende av kringresande lärare.

When the number of pupils increased, a new school was built in 1894 at Bröggevarn, with only one classroom where the lower and upper school took turns: one week in the mornings, the next in the afternoons. The teacher lived on the upper floor, which was common at the time.
In the 1920s, a new school was built, designed by master builder Herman Tilländer. It had two large classrooms on the ground floor, a gymnasium on the upper floor, and a handicraft room in the basement.
During the foundation work, human bones were found, leading to speculation that the site had once been a churchyard. In the 1950s, the building was modernized with toilets, showers, and new rooms.
The school quickly became the heart of the island — a place where children learned, but also where the village gathered for theatre, meetings, and celebrations.
Today, it still stands as a living reminder of Rörö’s development, from simplicity to pride.

The school that is in use today was built in the 2000s when the previous one was converted into housing.

Smuggling, freedom and the watchful eye of customs

During the interwar period, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, smuggling was common along the entire Bohus coast, and Rörö was no exception.
With its location far out in the archipelago and its many hiding places among the skerries, the island was ideal for receiving goods from Denmark, often spirits, at a time when alcohol sales were strictly regulated in Sweden.

For most Rörö residents, it was not a matter of crime, but of survival at a time when fishing provided an uneven income. It became part of the Bohuslän spirit of freedom, stubborn, independent and sometimes a little defiant towards the authorities.
The nights were dark, and boats glided silently between the skerries while the lanterns were extinguished to avoid detection. Even today, stories are told of how villagers could ‘sense that something was going on’ when the wind was right and the sounds carried across the bay.

At the same time, the island had long had a strong customs presence. As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, customs officers lived on Rörö, often working closely with the pilots. Their mission was to control maritime traffic, monitor trade and prevent illegal imports – but also to assist in accidents at sea.
As Rörö was strategically located at the entrance to the port of Gothenburg, the island became a natural outpost for the work of customs, a kind of balance between the guardians of the law and the stubborn independence of the islanders. Over time, smuggling became more legend than reality, but it says something important about the people of Rörö: their courage, ingenuity and determination to fend for themselves.
It is the same drive that has for generations made people here dare to live off the sea, and sometimes a little on its edge.

Utter-Anders – the hunter, fisherman and legend

Anders Olsson, better known as Utter-Anders, is perhaps the most legendary of all the older residents of Rörö.
He was born in 1885 and lived for almost 100 years at the northern end of Apelvik, where he built, fished, hunted and lived close to nature.
In 1927, he became famous throughout Sweden when he shot a male walrus on a skerry off Rörö – an animal that had probably drifted far south with the ice. The walrus can still be seen today at the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History.

Utter-Anders lived simply but richly. He built his own boats, lived off hunting and fishing, and was known for his wisdom and independence.
Stories from the island also say that he was involved in smuggling, something that was never proven but fits the image of a man who went his own way – afraid of neither the sea nor the law. For many Rörö residents, Utter-Anders symbolises the last days of self-sufficiency. He represents the generation that lived in harmony with nature, with courage, humour and a touch of defiance. His stories live on as part of the island’s soul.

Bathers are changing the island

At the turn of the 20th century, bathers from Gothenburg began to flock to Rörö for fresh air, sunshine and saltwater bathing.
The first bathers changed in simple wooden bathing huts set up down by the beach and bathed directly from the cliffs.
For the inhabitants of Rörö, summer became a new season of life and activity. They rented out rooms, sold fish, baked bread and welcomed city dwellers who were fascinated by life in the archipelago.

Over time, bathing became a natural part of the island’s identity. Small summer houses were built, boats arrived with passengers and the beach filled with people.
But this development also had a downside. Many of the houses were later bought by summer visitors who rarely lived there all year round, creating contrasts between winter silence and summer crowds.
Despite this, bathing culture has become part of Rørø’s charm, a meeting place between old and new, between town and sea.

Bathers came to rest, but they often stayed to become part of history.

Nature and landscape

The landscape of Rörö has always been both harsh and beautiful.
In the past, the island was almost completely treeless, covered with heathland and grasslands where cows and sheep grazed. The grazing animals kept the land open and the view towards the sea unobstructed.
When agriculture declined in the 20th century, the land began to grow over again, and scrub and bushes took over.

After the war, pine and birch trees were planted in sheltered locations, and the island gradually became greener. In the north, around Apelvik, there were long fruit orchards and small farms that bear witness to life in the days of self-sufficiency. Today, Rörö is also known for its rich nature, heathlands, sea meadows and abundant bird life. The paths that wind between the cliffs often follow old routes, and in several places you can still see the remains of fences and croft foundations.
The nature on Rörö is not only beautiful, it is a living history in itself, where every stone and every patch of flowering heather tells the story of how man and the landscape have grown together.