Activities on Runde
On the bird island of Runde, you do not have many options. You can go for a walk along the road and enjoy the ocean view, or go for a hike to see the puffins at Lundeura, or to the mountain peak Rundebranden, or even to Runde Fyr, which is the lighthouse at the north west end of Runde island. Or charter a boat to fish or see the birds from sea level. Or you can visit Runde Miljø center and view the Runde Treasure. Lost in 1725, found again in 1972.
- Some links to the hikes on Runde
- Lundeura to see the puffins
- Hiking to the Rundebranden mountain top
- AllTrails.com –
- Hike to Runde Fyr (the lighthouse)
- AllTrails.com –
- All 3 places in one trip
- Boat charters
- Aquila bird watching boat tour (Johan Moltu)
The Runde Treasure
Back in 1725, a Dutch ship called Akerendam drifted off course in bad weather and ran onto the ground at Runde. The locals found dead bodies at the shoreline and debris from the ship. For 247 years, the treasure lay on the ocean bed along with some cannons from the ship. On the day of 16th July in 1972, three people went diving along the north-west coast of Runde. 2 of the divers were Swedish and on an unplanned vacation trip, and arrived in Ålesund on a whim before deciding to dive at Runde island.
One of the divers found a coin and began digging, uncovering more at only 20 meters below the surface of the sea. The divers found approxly 57,000 coins, where 6,624 coins were Dutch gold coins, the rest were silver (9,183 Dutch and 8,141 Spanish dollars) from an area measuring 10-15 m2. The divers rescued on the 19th of July in 1972, 75 kilos of coins from the ocean bed. The divers continued later to rescue around 500 kilos of coins.
The ship Akerendam had 19 coin chests. The divers got to keep 75%, the state of Norway 15% and the state of the Netherlands got to keep 10% of the treasure. This is the largest gold find in Norway so far in history.
Some of the treasure is displayed at Runde Environmental Centre. (Website)(Facebook)(Instagram).