Løkken is a town in Vendsyssel with 1,624 inhabitants (2020), located by Jammerbugten 15 km west of Vrå, 26 km north of Aabybro and 21 km southwest of Hjørring. The town belongs to Hjørring Municipality and is located in the North Jutland Region. The town was originally a fishing village that was successful with boat trade, but today it is a busy tourist and holiday town.
Løkken belongs to Løkken-Furreby Parish. Furreby Church is a small Romanesque church without a tower. It is located north of Løkken itself in the former village Furreby, which is now a holiday home area and has grown together with Løkken. Løkken Church was built in the middle of the city in 1898. But the first church in Løkken itself was the Methodist Church, which was built in 1882. The Methodist congregation in Løkken was closed down in 2012, when there were only 4 members left.
The loop is located at the southern end of Lønstrup Klint, which
extends 15 km north to Lønstrup and has its highest point on Rubjerg
Knude 60 m above sea level. Here is Rubjerg Knude lighthouse, which
had come dangerously close to the slope and was moved 80 meters
further inland on 22 October 2019.
To the south, the 19 km
long and very wide beach is open for car driving all year round all
the way to Rødhus with descents along the way in Blokhus, Grønhøj
and Saltum. Behind the beach, several areas in the dune landscape
between Løkken and Rødhus are protected.
Børglum Kloster,
which is now a museum, is located 5 km east of Løkken on a hill with
a wide view.
Hotel Løkken Strand is built in a school building from 1926 and has
16 rooms. Løkken has 3 campsites, 3 B&B houses and many summer houses
and holiday apartments for rent.
There are only a few fishermen
left in Løkken, but the fishing environment still exists with a pier,
boat berth, danger and signal mast, sea mark, tar area and rescue house,
which now houses the Coastal Fisheries Museum with the rescue boat from
1944. Løkken Museum, which is housed in a schooner's house from 1860 ,
depicts the gun trade and beach life with the characteristic beach
houses that are set up on the beach in the summer. Løkken Miniby is an
association that is building a replica of Løkken in 1900 on a scale of
1:10.
In these years, efforts are being made to create a
broader-based tourism in the city, so that there is a spread over the
whole year. A strong local network has emerged in the city across
institutions, businesses, associations and active citizens. Here, work
is being done on several fronts:
retaining the existing citizens
through quality improvement across the city
an active settlement
policy, which at the beginning of the 2020s is predicted to increase the
population by around 15%
an attractive year-round tourism policy that
includes completely new focus areas
to develop into an attractive
mini congress town with opportunities for guest visits over several days
all year round.
To strengthen this work, a new network has been
created in the city: løkken.dk. "
Løkken Undervisningssted as part of Løkken-Vrå School has 211
students, divided into grades 0-9. grade.
Hyttefadet is an
institution with room for 60 children aged 0-6 years.
Løkken
Idrætscenter & Hostel has a swimming pool, exercise center and sports
hall. The Sømærket swimming club is located in the newly renovated
swimming hall.
Idrætsforeningen GVL Løkken was founded in 1967 by
merging Løkken Idrætsforening, Gølstrup Boldklub and Vittrup
Idrætsforening. It offers handball and badminton in the sports hall as
well as football.
Løkken has several supermarkets, bakers, butchers
and a tourist office.
Løkken - then called Løchen - was founded in 1678, when the first
house was built on Furreby's fenced field. The residents of the
house had innkeepers and traded with the Norwegians, but had no guns
themselves. In 1715 there were 15 houses on the site, and now
skippers began to settle there. The town then developed into an
important loading point for the trade between Vendsyssel and
southern Norway, where grain, butter and meat were exchanged for
wood and iron. There are still warehouses from this gun trade, which
lasted until around 1900.
In 1875, Løkken is described as
follows: "The loading dock Løkken, where there is a customs
clearance control point, a rescue station and a private school...
has 87 houses... From Løkken a considerable trade is carried on,
especially in England and Norway with coarse goods and grain; there
are, in addition to several merchants, and some in the countryside
not ordinary craftsmen, such as dyers, one of whom runs a steam
tannery, bakers, saddle makers, carpenters, iron casters, tanners,
potters, etc. The town has for the most part brick-hung houses,
among which are several large warehouses, a considerable steam kiln
and a brickworks, and looks like a trading town; however, many
thatched houses lie between and there are no streets." On the tall
measuring table leaf from the 19th century, the spelling Lykken is
used.
In 1901, Løkken was described as follows: "Ladepladsen
og Fiskerlejet Løkken — 1 Feb. 1890: 164 houses and 1067 inhabitants
(1801: 217, 1840: 445, 1860: 627, 1880: 815) — with Church,
Methodist church, secondary school, private school , Pharmacy,
Doctor's residence, Retirement home (founded by the Support
Association in 1888, with a house for 2 needy families), Savings
bank (founded 11/12 1871...Number of accounts 1188), Guest house,
Bath hotel, Merchant's business, Iron foundry, Market place (Market
in Apr. and Oct.), Rescue station (established 1882), Danger and
signal station for fishermen, Customs assistant station, Coastal
telegraph station, Telegraph and telephone station as well as postal
forwarding. The place is to be a station on the intended
Aabybro-Hjørring line...After In the year 1897-98 in Løkken, there
were 180 fishermen who fished from 26 open sea boats and 70 smaller
boats... (especially cod and haddock)."
Løkken Badehotel was
originally a skudehandler farm from around 1840. The bathehotel
operated from 1895 to 1985, when it was taken over by a limited
company, which restored and modernized it. Now it consists of 29
holiday apartments.
The station town
Løkken had the
largest intermediate station on the Hjørring-Løkken-Aabybro Railway,
also called Løkkenbanen (1913-63). The station had a water tap for
the steam locomotives and 4 continuous tracks in front of the
station building, including 2 platform tracks. The crossing track
was 246 meters long, and to the east of the station building there
was a separate loading track of 143 meters. From track 4, a plug
track went to the turntable and two-track locomotive depot, because
Løkken was often the terminus of the evening trains.
Transporting fish and driving bathers became important sources of
income for the course. The railway gave a big boost to the city's
tourism, because now you could go on a one-day excursion with a
continuous train from Aalborg to the beach at Løkken. There were
special bathing trains with up to 20-30 carriages. The track
acquired 16 bench cars for this purpose, i.e. closed goods carriages
that could be equipped with benches and function as 3rd class
passenger carriages. Later, many excursion trains ran from Aalborg
with e.g. public pensioners. Løkkenbanen then connected the
Fjerritslev-Frederikshavn Railway's wagons in Aabybro and drove them
to Løkken, possibly Horn ring. In southbound trains, it was often
only a small part of the train that continued all the way to
Aabybro, the rest was uncoupled and stood on a side track in Løkken
for the return journey – at the same time you had shelter for the
bathers, who in case of bad weather sought the station.
During World War II, the Germans used the track a lot to transport
materials for the fortification of the west coast of Jutland. A
little north of Løkken, the Germans built the Furreby Coastal
Battery, which can still be seen as a long line of bunkers on the
beach. A narrow-gauge railway was built between the station and the
beach, which is marked on the low gauge sheet.
The station
building, which was designed by Sylvius Knutzen, was extended in
1944 and is preserved on Harald Fischers Vej 8. At the south-eastern
end of the town, 2 km of the course's route is preserved as the
Åsendrup Banesti dirt road past Løkken Golf Club.
Løkken was
in periods the 3rd largest fishing town on the West Coast. Around
1950 there were about 50 boats that were pulled up on the beach.
Until the municipal reform in 2007, Løkken was one of the main towns
in Løkken-Vrå Municipality, which was formed by the municipal reform in
1970 with the municipal seat in Vrå.
Now Løkken is one of 5
so-called star towns in Hjørring Municipality. The city is predicted to
have a population increase of over 15% in the coming years as the
fastest growing city in Hjørring Municipality. Among other things. the
relatively new surfing environment at Løkken Mole attracts families with
children who want to be close to excellent surfing opportunities.