Finnsnes

Most people see Finnsnes through the windscreen, on the way to Senja. The town sits on a point of the mainland where the sound Gisundet meets Finnfjorden, and what you notice first is the long concrete bridge climbing over the water to Silsand on the Senja side. Finnsnes itself is a working town of about 5.084 people, with the town hall of Senja municipality, schools, the local paper Folkebladet and the shops that people from all over Midt-Troms drive in for. The Hurtigruten calls here, and express boats run to Tromsø and Harstad.

Out in the municipality, fishing and fish farming give almost one job in ten, eleven times the Norwegian average, and much of the catch is processed locally. The midnight sun lasts from about 21 May to 23 July, the polar night from 30 November to 12 January.

Local knowledge: the name started as a farm name, written Finznes around 1400. The first part may be Finnir, an old name for Finnfjorden, or Fenni, a word once used for Sámi and Finnish-speaking people, or simply the man's name Finn. For centuries there wasn't much here but the farm. Houses came in the late 1800s, and because the sound is narrow and sheltered, Finnsnes became the natural ferry landing for Senja. Then on 23 June 1972 Crown Prince Harald opened Gisundbrua, 1.147 metres long and 41 metres above the water at its highest. Senja was tied to the mainland, and from the 1970s Finnsnes grew into the centre for the whole region. It has called itself a town since 1 January 2000.

Born here: singer Maria Haukaas Mittet (born 1979) won the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix in 2008 with Hold On Be Strong and came fifth in the Eurovision final in Belgrade. Songwriter Ina Wroldsen (born 1984) grew up in Oslo and has co-written British number ones such as Impossible for James Arthur and Rockabye for Clean Bandit.

Visiting: the pin is in the centre on Torggata, a couple of minutes from the small lake Finnsnesvatnet, with a park around it, the town hall and Finnsnes church from 1979. In front of the culture house is Arvid Hanssens plass, named after the much-loved Senja writer. On a rainy day the culture house has the town's cinema, and the Amfi shopping centre is close by. Then cross the bridge. On Senja you soon reach Ånderdalen National Park, with coastal pine forest where some trees are up to 500 years old, and further out the sharp peak of Segla and the view from Bergsbotn.

Fact sheet

• People: 5.084 in Finnsnes, 14.946 in Senja municipality
• County: Troms
• Town since: 2000
• Typical industries: fishing and fish farming, food industry (much of it fish)
• Midnight sun: 21 May – 23 July
• Polar night: 30 November – 12 January

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).