TOUR GUIDE How to find Oslo’s rivers and streams by train, tram, bus and Metro OSLO RIVER FORUM Oslo River Forum (Oslo Elveforum, OE) was founded in the year 2000 as a forum for volunteer groups and associations working for Oslo’s ten river catchments. Our task is to promote to the protection, rehabilitation and re-opening of the rivers and streams in the City’s built-up area. We work to make Oslo’s waterways clear, clean, open and accessible for citizens and visitors. Riversides are to be protected and turned into green space, with trails along each stream. Waters are to be healthy and aquatic species, including fish, encouraged. Oslo River Forum submits comments in all plan and zoning cases that concern the streams, protesting when develop- ments are proposed within the 20 and 12 metre limits given in the City’s zoning guidelines. We arrange guided tours along our rivers. And support schools, that adopt a part of their local stream. In a wet and wilder climate, we actively front the issue of re-opening the buried reaches of Oslo’s streams. Our vision: Living streams from forest to fjord. www.osloelveforum.no CONTENTS The terms ‘river ‘, ‘stream’, ‘brook’ or ‘creek’ each convey the size of a watercourse. In Oslo, three words apply: elv, bekk and å. A distinction is that one can leap over en bekk but not ei elv. From Danish there is a saying: Mange bekker små gjør en stor å. ’Many brooks make a large stream’, so å is larger than ‘bekk’. And remember: å is pronounced ‘awe’. A little Norwegian grammar: En and ei are the masculine and feminine article ‘a’. To make ‘the’ in a Scandinavian language, we put an article at the end; in Norwegian -en for mascu- line and -a for feminine. In Oslo, both are used with elv for ‘river’: Akerselva flows through a former factory area; Hoffselven flows through upmarket residential suburbs. TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4 LYSAKERELVA – A county border with waterfalls and gorges _____ 6 MÆRRADALSBEKKEN – Rich biodiversity ______________________________________________ 8 HOFFSELVEN – From ice dam to ice dam ____________________________________________ 10 FROGNERELVEN – Across ancient farms and Vigeland’s Park __________________________________________________ 12 RIVERS/ AKERSELVA – From red-brick factories to riverside idyll _____________ 14 STREAMS HOVINBEKKEN – An award-winning urban stream ______________________ 16 ALNA – All natural! ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 18 ØSTENSJØVANNET – For the Protection of birds ____________________________ 22 LJANSELVA – Green space, old forest and historic remains ______ 24 GJERSJØELVA – River history with a working Norse mill and pit saw __________________________________________________ 26 ELLINGSRUDELVA – Fresh stream that flows north ______________________ 28 OSLO RE-OPENING BURIED STREAMS __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 29 RUTER’S PUBLIC TRANSPORT HUB JERNBANETORGET/TOLLBODEN/OSLO S ____________________________________________________31 Oslo’s rivers 3 TOUR GUIDE How to find Oslo’s rivers and streams by train, tram, bus and Metro Welcome to Oslo with its ten • This guide follows each stream rivers and streams, and the nature upstream towards its source. The reserve Østensjøvannet. You numbering on each map begins will find precious natural areas with the access point furthest along our waterways, rich in bird, downstream. This has been chos- animal and plant life, with good en because most visitors will be walking trails, places to bathe staying in or near the city centre and parklands, all surrounded by and the fjord to which nine of the the Capital City’s urban bustle. ten streams flow. Don’t let the numbering stop you from choos- Tips for an enjoyable walk: ing to walk downstream. • Use your senses: look, listen and • The guide takes the public trans- smell. Take note of your surround- port hub, Jernbanetorget, at Oslo ings and follow on the map. A Central Station (Oslo S) as its start- quarter of Oslo’s waterways are ing point (see map page 31). Check still underground in pipes and with the transport authority for culverts, so there are places Greater Oslo, Ruter (www.ruter.no), where the path simply follows the download their app (RuterReise) low ground, perhaps along city with live schedules and travel streets. planner, or visit the information 4 Oslo’s rivers Tegnforklaring Tog T-bane WELCOME Bus Trikk Båt Legend for the maps: BekRiverk elle orr e lstreamv i rør in pipe Tegnforklaring BekRiverk elle orr e lstreamv i tunne lin tunnel TTrainog StieOfficialr i Oslo trails in Oslo OE trails by the rivers TMetro-bane Water BBusus Myr Swamp Skog Tram Trikk Forest Grøntområde BInformationåt board Green space Bekk eller elv i rør Bekk eller elv i tunnel Stier i Oslo Vann Myr office on Jernbanetorget. Please • Not all trails are suitable for note that MetroSkog is called T-bane wheelchairs, prams or even in Norwegian and ‘tram’ is trikk. bicycles. Grøntområde • Public transport in Oslo is conve- • Oslo Elveforum is on Facebook nient and reliable, in part because and Twitter. Please share your tickets are not sold on board. The photos on Instagram with app RuterBillett is now available #osloelveforum and #(the if you have a mobile phone from stream’s name). Europe. Single, 1-hour tickets are sold at train and Metro stations Enjoy your walk! and kiosks, but not at bus or tram stops. For kr 50, kiosks sell trans- port cards that can be loaded with a 24-hour, 7-day or 30-day pass, or with travel money that is checked and, if expired, drawn upon when you scan it at a station or on board. Oslo’s rivers 5 LYSAKERELVA Flows into Lysaker Fjord at Sollerudstranda A COUNTY LINE WITH WATERFALLS footbridges linking them. Along the AND GORGES Lysaker River you will find the ruins A major stream in a dramatic lands- of saw mills, corn mills and the cape forms the boundary in the west remnants of heavy industry. There is between Oslo and the neighbouring abundant birdlife with 102 species re- borough of Bærum. You will be sur- gistered. Trout are to be taken along prised by its wildness, and get some the whole stream, and fine sea trout real exercise climbing along the river’s and sizeable salmon run up to spaw- steep banks. There are walking trails ning grounds below the first high on both sides, designated L-1 in waterfall. Bærum and A1 in Oslo and eleven 6 Oslo’s rivers GETTING THERE: 1. Lysaker: All trains except expresses from Oslo S or Nationaltheatret, Bus 31 (Stop: Lysaker stasjon), 6 Bus 32 (Stop Lysaker bru) 2. Lilleaker: Bus 32 and 23, Tram 13 3. Bjørnsletta/Øraker: Metro Line 3; Tram 13 4. Lysejordet: Bus 32 5. Ekraveien: Metro Line 2 6. Peder Ankers plass/Bogstad camping: Bus 32 (Bogstad Camping) or Bus 41 (Peder Ankers plass) 5 Bærum 4 K ir k 3 e h a u n e i veien e d v n ru n 1 e ø r ll B So tor L R i ustads ve l i l e a k e 2 rv e Lysa ie n Lysaker bru Lysa kerel va n 18 eie Lysaker E åtv ebr ntz Fra Strandveien lerud Lysaker stasjon N Scale 1:25000 1 MÆRRADALSBEKKEN Flows into Bestumkilen (Bestum Inlet) RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY variety of plants, especially fungi and The lower reaches of Mærradals- mosses, and the birds that depend on bekken run through private gardens them. It is so special that it is classi- before entering a culvert under the fied nationally as a habitat to be pro- railway and motorway. That is why we tected. North of Sørkedalsveien, the start from the outer ring road (Ring trail follows the wide Hovseterdalen, 3) at Radiumhospitalet, Norway’s all the way to Bogstad Camping. The specialist cancer clinic from where an stream was laid in a pipe in the 1970s, excellent trail proceeds northward but in 2018 the decision was made to through the narrow Mærradalen re-open it. gorge and up to Sørkedalsveien. This very special landscape supports a rich 8 Oslo’s rivers GETTING THERE: 1. Ring 3/ Radiumhospitalet: Bus 23 3 2. Røa/ Sørkedalsveien: Metro Line 2 3. Bogstad camping: Bus 32 or 41 2 Sørk edalsv eien Ring 3 1 2 ien N Scale 1:24000 HOFFSELVEN Flows into Bestumkilen (Bestum Inlet) FROM ICE DAM TO ICE DAM and for firefighting. Bjørnebo Dam, At the end of the 1800s when Oslo Smestad Dam and Holmen Dam were supplied Britain and Europe with all ice dams.The path up along the ice for refrigeration, the owners of river passes the beautiful, 11-meter the manor farms Hoff, Smestad and high Dronning (Queen’s) Falls. Just Holmen constructed water storages below these falls lies the confluence that would freeze each winter to a where the streams Holmenbekken considerable thickness. Blocks of ice and Makrellbekken form Hoffselven. were cut and transported to ships Just don’t expect to catch mackerel in lying in Oslo Fjord, providing winter Makrellbekken! The name is a corrup- work and returning the landowners tion of ‘markskille’ or field divider; the good income. The dams also secured stream was the boundary between the farms’ water supply for stock, two ancient farms. 10 Oslo’s rivers GETTING THERE: 1. Skøyen: Train from Oslo S or Nationaltheatret Train Station, Bus 20, 31 3 2. Smestad: Metro Line 2, 3 3. Makrellbekken: Metro Line 2 2 Ring 3 i e v n e y ø Ho k ff S A skek n r ie o k ve e 1 Skøyen n stu ing T ien Skøyen sve torg Ho Karenslyst ffs mmen pl. bakken Dra p r H o Sjølyst m o f n f e s - e n e e d a l s a 1 v d s n - e e e n M m E o 18 r p a elv Hoff s N Scale 1:12000 FROGNERELVEN Flows into Frognerkilen (Frogner Inlet) ACROSS ANCIENT FARMS, THROUGH the Oslo City Museum.