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Runde’s abundance of nature and species

Runde is renowned as the southernmost bird cliff in Norway. The island boasts a great diversity of species and includes several bird conservation areas. In 2013, Runde received Ramsar site status. In addition to species such as the great skua and northern gannet, approximately 30,000 pairs (2022) of puffins nest here. This is the only bird cliff south of Træna to have puffins. The area around Runde has several important natural environments, including shallow water areas, deep fjords, and the continental shelf. The continental slope is located about 50 kilometres from the island and descends to a depth of 3,000 metres.

Some of the older remaining buildings on Runde are made of driftwood, one of the island's "treasures" in the distant past. The main source of livelihood has been fishing, cultivating land, and animal husbandry. Today, the island has 103 residents (2022), most involved in fishing, agriculture, and tourism.

Ancient monuments

Herøy municipality has a high concentration of ancient monuments, with 655 individual monuments listed in the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage database, known as “Askeladden”. Many visible burial mounds and cairns date back to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Herøy is also known to have marshes concealing sacrificial finds from the late Stone Age and Bronze Age. These findings can be linked to the same transitional phase as the settlement remains on Runde. This indicates that peasant culture was established in the area early on, with extensive lines of communication and trade networks reaching as far as the Baltic and southern Scandinavia.

Settlement remains

In 1961, a landowner on Runde identified a possible settlement site after receiving a query. The same year, archaeologists from the University Museum of Bergen conducted a survey. The initial investigation took place in the summer of 1972, revealing iron nails, flint, and fragments of earthenware. The entire archaeological site at Langeneset was reassessed and surveyed in 2013, and the final archaeological excavation took place in 2016-2017.

The current form of the settlement site at Langeneset is rectangular, measuring 14.5 x 10 metres, and it was buried under an old pebble beach. The original size of the settlement may have been 16 x 10 metres. A total of 539 findings have been made on this site. The datings and findings indicate activity and use in three main phases: the end of the late Stone Age, the late Bronze Age, and the pre-Roman Iron Age. 

Among the findings were various flint tools such as boring bits, scrapers, and fragments of damaged polished axes. A small arrowhead with a concave base, found in the floor layer, is particularly noteworthy. These arrowheads are characteristic of early agricultural culture in the west of Norway. Traces show that many centuries later, cooking pits were dug in the remains of the settlement, along with findings of cooking vessels made of asbestos ceramics and fragments of bone and shells.

The settlement at Langeneset is strategically located next to the rich marine resources in the waters off Runde. Bones found during the excavations suggest that the settlement was used for various hunting resources such as fish, seals, and birds. This helps provide a far more nuanced understanding of early agriculture and the significance of hunting and fishing. Perhaps the dwelling was a hunting station linked to a more typical rural settlement nearby?
The fact that the settlement was reused in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age is also intriguing. The two cooking pits found in the settlement may point to a particular type of activity, perhaps related to food smoking or some other process.

Cairns

Eight metres southeast of the settlement lies a burial cairn with a standing stone on its western edge. The stone is four metres high and has a pointed tip. According to locals, the standing stone was erected in recent times, and it is still uncertain whether this location is the original one. On the slope a few metres to the northwest, remains of what might be a partially collapsed burial cairn were examined in 2013, without any findings being made.