Neppens Havn

Neppens Havn is a dinghy harbour on the open shore at Bangsbostrand, south of Frederikshavn. There are no visitor berths, no harbour office, no toilet and no water, and the harbour silts up and has to be dredged from time to time. Visiting crews should head instead for Frederikshavn Marina, six hundred metres to the north on the other side of the Bangsbo stream mouth.

What the place is, though, is one of the last remnants of an old North Jutland tradition. All along the coast between Skippergade and the point by the northern redoubt lay kåse — gathered fieldstones laid in long straight rows at right angles to the beach, so that they gave shelter to open boats while loading and unloading. There were kåse at Rønnest, at Diget, at Neppen and at Fladstrand, and each one carried the name of the family that maintained that particular landing place. That is the name the harbour still bears. The gravel track down to it is called Kåsene.

The harbour as it stands was built on the remains of those early kåse. It is owned by the Frederikshavn fishermen's association and run by the Neppens Havn society, founded in 1998, which holds the harbour on a twenty-five-year lease with no rent — in exchange the volunteers do all the maintenance. Around thirty boats lie here, and only a few of them fish.

In 2011 the piers were rebuilt for over six hundred thousand kroner: the southernmost was replaced entirely, the other two repaired, and all three given side ramps for easier access to the boats. A timber-decked terrace with tables, benches and barbecue places was laid at the same time, free for anyone to use. Eight years later the piles under the bathing pier had rotted again, and the society had to raise another couple of hundred thousand.

Today the place is chiefly a local gathering point. People swim from the pier, out to a buoy a couple of hundred metres south; in winter the bathers use it too. People bring food and eat on the terrace. It is not a harbour you sail to — it is one you walk down to.