A harbour village of white timber houses below a mountainous shore

Harbour · The Northern Shore

Ostmere Reach

property listed · OST · desk since 2004

Ostmere Reach is a fishing harbour that never stopped fishing. There are sixty-odd white timber houses on the water and another eighty on the ridge behind, and the ridge is where the views are.

The harbour is busy from four in the morning. This is a genuine consideration and we mention it on every viewing: the houses on the water hear it, and the houses on the ridge do not.

The ridge houses are mostly post-war, generously sized and undistinguished from the road. What they have is a south-facing garden and an uninterrupted view down the fjord, and once you are inside one, the road frontage stops mattering.

What it is actually like

Working harbour hours: boats leave from about 04:00 and land the catch between 14:00 and 16:00.
The ridge is roughly forty metres above the water, which puts it above the fog that sits in the harbour on still mornings.
Timber houses on the water need repainting every six or seven years. The conservation guidance specifies the colours.
A school, a doctor, two shops and a chandler. It is a town that works in winter, not only in August.

Journey times

Harbour front: 8 min on foot from the ridge
Ostmere station: 12 min by car
Calaret Point: 48 min by car
Sablon: 2 h 40 by rail

Letting rather than buying

Most of what we hold in Ostmere is let rather than sold. Families arrive for a posting of two or three years, and the ridge houses turn over accordingly.

The conservation area

Everything below the ridge road sits inside it. External alterations, including window frames and paint colour, need consent. Inside, you may do as you like.

On the register in Ostmere Reach