Lighthouse retreats are shining bright in Norway

Solitary, isolated and battling natural forces beyond its control, a lighthouse chimes with the times like nothing else. In Norway, a network of more than 60 decommissioned government lighthouses have been turned into shortterm holiday lets and are popular pit-stops for those exploring the vast coast (visitnorway.com).

This June, the derelict lighthouse on the island of Santa Clara in San Sebastián’s La Concha bay will reopen as a piece of free art. Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias has excavated the 156-yearold landmark and refilled it with a bronze cast of the local coastline. “It will be a space for observation and introspection,” says the artist, whose previous works include horizontal fountains, submerged rooms and tropical mazes. Visitors to Santa Clara can either swim or take a boat to the island where there are also nature trails, a restaurant and a beach.

And should you want to stay the night on your own private island, then Pater

Noster on the tiny isle of Hamneskar, off the west coast of Sweden, is as remote as it gets. The 19th-century lighthouse has been elegantly renovated into a nine-bedroom guesthouse with its own restaurant, bar and outdoor café and is the perfect base from which to tour the archipelago’s 8,000 islands (paternoster.se).

i Remote: Norway’s Marstein lighthouse