The granite-quarrying industry began to gather real momentum in
the 1860s. Halden Steinhuggeri [Halden Stonemasons] was
established, and the Oslo company NS Beer & Co opened quarries
in the Idd area (such as the "Monolith quarry"
GCQ5F7) and had a base at Krokstrand on the Swedish side of the
fjord. With the growth of industrialisation in the 1890s, the
proportion of industrial workers grew from a few percent of the
population to about a quarter by 1910. Many of those in the stone
industry were Swedish. At Ystehede quarry the majority were
Swedish. The reason is that the stone industry in Bohuslän started
before that in Smålenene (the old name of the county) and thus
skilled workers from Sweden were more available.
Quarrying was seasonal work, like timber and tile works. In
common with the timber industry, the granite industry was
export-oriented: much stone was sent to Britain, Denmark and
Germany, later even further afield. Stone was typically loaded onto
ships; quarries were often a good stretch away from the towns.
At this cache there is a natural slipway over the smooth rocks
into the sea, which now makes a good place to swim from. There is
still an active quarry at Ystehede, which one can stop at on the
way to this cache. Suggestions:
- From Halden, follow the Rv 22 and turn left at about 7km south
of Halden into Skriverøveien. NB if you see a sign 8km south on the
Rv, for a bathing place and Ystehedekilen, you have gone too far
south
- Park at PK1 or, if you absolutely must drive as far as
possible, carry on to Skriverøya; at PK2 there is space for about 2
cars (and there is a small sheltered beach)
- Check out the current quarry at QUARRY if you like. It's
operated by Johansen Granitt and is the last one still exporting
Iddefjord granite
- Look for a footpath starting at START
- Follow the path upwards NW, then W and SW down to sea level at
FJORD
At this point, you have reached a secluded spot on the west side
of Skriverøya with beautiful views of the fjord. You can cycle this
far if you try hard. There is much crushed stone around, and
evidence of relatively modern machinery for loading granite onto
ships. There are excellent smooth rocks for sunbathing and
barbecuing. In the distance one can see Krokstrand in Sweden. This
could also be a place to start caching from a boat
The cache is about 80m away, but you need to walk up a smooth
rock face to reach it (hence the terrain rating). This is the route
we took, but it might be possible to take it from above by taking a
path branching left earlier, in the region of BRANCH perhaps.
Further up there is a redoubt [redutt] at REDUTT, built in 1718 as
a defence from King Charles XII of Sweden. It is very overgrown
with not much to see, so the cache is not so high up. Even from
lower down, it has an excellent view over the fjord and
loading-point. The box contains a few items for trading. On the way
back after finding the cache you might also like to look at the
small fortification from 1905 at POSTERING but I suspect it is in
similar condition to the redutt.