Fishing stations in Lofoten and Vesterålen would receive many visiting fishermen during the season. They needed accommodation, and buildings for this purpose were named "rorbuer". The fishermen themselves who paid a ground rent and often also brought their own building materials built the oldest cabins. During the 17th century the locals took over an increasing number of the "rorbuer". Towards the end of the 18th century large parts of the Crown estate including "rorbuer" and fish drying racks were sold off to innkeepers and fishing station owners ("væreiere").

The main room in a fishermen's cabin ("burommet") served as a combined kitchen, living room and bedroom. Typically the walls would be cog-jointed timber, the roof joists would span from gable to gable and turf or slates covered the roof. Pad stones were the most common kind of foundations. The entrance room ("budøra"), used for storing fishing tackle and other equipment, needed to withstand a lot of water and to be well ventilated. The walls were simplified timber frames with vertical cladding

trusses carried the rafters spanning from gable to gable and corrugated steel covered the roof. The "budør" did in some cases stand on wooden stilts in the sea.
The fishing station owners ("væreiere") made building and letting "rorbuer" part of their businesses. For this to be a profitable undertaking they demanded exclusive rights of purchase of the fishmen's catch in return for accommodation. An act of parliament dated 20 March 1899 repealed this conditional right-to-buy. Thereby the "væreiere" lost a major source of assured income, which explains why at many fishing stations the "rorbuer" fell into a state of disrepair. Around the turn of the century the authorities took an interest in the fishermen's health, as there were frequent outbreaks of typhoid and dysentery due to poor hygiene at the fishing stations.