Trollkyrkja

Troll’s Church


Useful Information

Location: 18 km from Ålesund, to Molde, then north on road 64. Parking lot (62.86728491335483, 7.275113546635621) with bus station Trollkyrkja and signposted trail. 3 km hike uphill.
(62.8887917, 7.2678054)
Open: no restrictions.
[2020]
Fee: free.
[2020]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst Cave Speleologyriver cave.
Light: bring torch
Dimension:  
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Trollkyrkja, 6440 Elnesvågen, Tel: +47-71-201-000.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1890 cave first advertised by the Molde and Romsdal’s Tourist Association.

Description

Trollkyrkja (Troll’s Church) is one of the longest caves of Norway and has one of the biggest chambers. It is quite spectacular because of the waterfall in this huge chamber, and spectacular pictures can be found on pinterest and others, which boosted its popularity.

The cave is located on Trolltindan (887 m asl) hill, a 3 km hike from the car park. While the cave itself is completely undeveloped, its access is actually well developed as a tourist attraction. There is a huge car park on the road, a marked trail, and a printed booklet with description and cave map which is available from a wooden letter box. However, we recommend very good and water tight walking shoes, while the trail to the cave is almost a single-lane road, there are fords through rivers and boggy parts. The second part goes steep uphill, and you should plan at least 1.5 h walk to the cave, less for the way back. OpenStreetMap actually has all the cave locations and the trail, so we suggest using this map on your gps.

The Trollkyrkja is a river cave, it’s easy to find the main entrance by following the river to its resurgence. The passage inside is a canyon-like river passage with huge blocks. As there is always the river on the ground, it is futile to try to avoid the water. We recommend a helmet (many parts are quite low), a headlamp, and gum boots. And it’s definitely cold in the cave, so bring an additional jacket for the cave. Actually, you should never walk more than 10 m in Norway without a warm jacket in your backpack.

The cave is actually a very old tourist attraction, which was first advertised to tourists in 1890 by the Molde og Romsdals Turistforening (Molde and Romsdal’s Tourist Association). Since the 1980s it is supervised by the Fræna kommune (Fræna municipality). They have installed staircases to the entrance, which makes the most dangerous spots much saver. However, they have no idea about caving, so they give a length of 6 km with 2 km explored. That’s obviously nonsense, if there are 2 km explored it’s 2 km long, nobody can know about unexplored things, not even the tourist office.