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Description

Skjerstad Herring Oil Factory is situated on the west side of the fjord Kasfjord northeast on the island Hinnøya, roughly 9 kilometres from the Harstad town centre. This factory building is painted white with two large brick chimneys and has an accompanying warehouse at the edge of the sea. It is located in a landscape that is otherwise characterised by agriculture.

The factory building is a composite of two parts. The production hall has a base that measures approximately 8 x 12 metres and is one-and-a-half-storied with a saddle roof. Situated in the north, like an extension of the production hall, is the boiler room. It measures approximately 8 x 5 metres, and has a low pitched roof. In the production hall there are concrete walls facing towards the boiler room and the east. The other two walls are timber framed and are clad with corrugated iron. Two tall brick chimneys are situated in the production hall's eastern corner, and the largest one is located outside on the gable north of the boiler room.

Today the road divides the factory site by the sea from the farm buildings it once belonged to. Skjerstad is an old agricultural- and market area, which emerged near the end of the 19th century. Before the herring oil factory was built, this farm had a long history as a fish netting facility and fish processing plant. Jacob Parelius Normann took over this property from his father in 1896. He also purchased fish in Lofoten, "klippfisk" (salted and dried cod) and sold it in Bergen.

Skjerstad herring oil factory was declared listed in 1996. It was opened to the public in 1998 and is today a part of Sør-Troms Museum.

Skjerstad sildoljefabrikk