Jøssingfjord Science Museum

Jøssingfjord Science Museum in Hauge i Dalane, Norway, is dedicated to the unique geology and mining history of the Dalane region, aiming to inspire interest in science among visitors.

Planning your visit

The Dalane region of southwest Norway has geology unlike anywhere else in the country — anorthosite, a rock more commonly associated with the lunar highlands than with terrestrial crust, forming a massif that has been quarried and mined for ilmenite, the principal ore of titanium. The Jøssingfjord Science Museum exists to explain it.

The building is dramatically sited at the head of Jøssingfjord, a narrow inlet with sheer walls, and the museum covers the geology, the mining industry that grew from it, and the technology involved, with hands-on science exhibits aimed at making the material accessible to families.

Jøssingfjord carries another history: the Altmark incident of February 1940, when a British destroyer entered these neutral Norwegian waters to board a German ship and free British prisoners — an episode that hastened the German invasion of Norway weeks later.

The Helleren houses, two nineteenth-century wooden dwellings built beneath an enormous overhanging rock shelf nearby, are a short walk and worth the detour. Allow ninety minutes. The main booking is an entrance ticket. Current availability is listed below.