Högmarsö

On Högmarsö there is a summer-open ICA shop with a marine fuel station and a café with ice cream, the small shop Sjöboden with clothing and home décor, and Restaurang Varvet with a bar and à la carte service. Högmarsö has been inhabited since the 1500s. On the initiative of several of the shipowners in the surrounding area, led by the "Blidö King" Johan Österman, a boatyard was started here in 1876. Jonas Petter Elfving was appointed head of the operation. According to tradition, he also took part in catching a lost beaked whale by chasing it in, stranding and harpooning it in the northeastern bay of the island. Here, ships were built using durable carvel technique instead of the traditional clinker technique. In 1918 they began building steel ships and the name was changed to Furusunds Slip- och Varfs AB. Since 2023 you can also stay overnight in Kajhuset, in the middle of the boatyard, which is also run by the couple behind the restaurant.

Furusund is part of the name because Furusund was a well-known place and several of the boatyard workers came from there. For a time in the 1930s and 1940s, a smaller boatyard for leisure boats also stood next to the shipyard. A community grew up in connection with the boatyard, with a school and a free church. For a time there was also a Mormon congregation here whose members later emigrated to the USA. Today Restaurang Varvet is run in the old boatyard premises, and a smaller boatyard carries on the traditions. In 1970 a cable ferry from Svartnö was inaugurated.

Travel to Högmarsö by car on road 276 from Åkersberga or Norrtälje. Turn off towards Furusund at the Penningby junction. From Norrtälje, buses 632 and 634 run. Get off at the Högmarsö junction, cross the road and go 200 metres down to the Högmarsö ferry, which is a paid ferry – you pay when you travel back to the mainland. For those travelling by their own boat, there is a wind-sheltered spot for anchoring in Norrviken. For restaurant guests there are plenty of floating jetties to moor at (nautical chart number 612).

You can also take a passenger boat to Högmarsö from Stockholm or Furusund. The boat stops at Högmarsö jetty (which is about 1.3 km from Restaurang Varvet). Raise the semaphore and the boat will pick you up at the jetty. The boat traffic runs all year round, but it can be cancelled if there is a great deal of ice. The jetty is not accessibility-adapted.

Jetty position:
Latitude: 59.64598
Longitude: 18.81746

Timetables and more information – Waxholmsbolaget