The province of Bohuslän has numerous well-known fishing villages. Käringön is one of them and is located 30 nautical miles north of Vinga, an island in the archipelago of Gotheburg. Käringön’s history goes back to the 17th century, but as early as during the 16th century, families of fishermen found the island and began to make it their home. At the start of the 19th century more than 300 people inhabited the island. The majority of them earned their living from fishing. However, there were also working pilots making sure ships arrived to, and left, the island safely. There was also a working Coast Guard and a priest on the island. During the 19th century there were less herring in the ocean, which made a lot of islanders move away. Today there are only two fishing ships left on Käringön.180 of the islands 200 houses are built before 1920 and have contributed in giving Käringön a cultural value as well as making it the tourist attraction it is today.

There are a lot of the legends and stories about Käringön and they’ve all enriched Käringön as an island. The saying is that the inhabitants of the island were hard-working fishermen whose endurance gave them greater luck in fishing, in comparison to other fishermen from the province. Their two-masted ships and stubborn nature took them far out to sea on the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. By using longline fishing they caught large quantities of Common ling, witch were brought back home and prepared as stockfish or were dried and salted.

Käringön is isolated in the outer archipelago. Since there used to be poor connections to the main land, the islanders had a hard time going to church. Therefore, they built their own church during the 19th century. The most talked about priest on the island was Laurentz Olof August Simson. He is still remembered fondly by the islanders, as he left the vicarage to the parish in his will when he died. Before he became the island priest, he was the head of the public school on the island. He even founded his own laws! On his gravestone you can read as follows: ”Here lies the transient part of the priest and member of the orden LAURENZ OLOF AUGUST SIMSON next to spouse FREDRIKA CHARLOTTA SIMSON. ‘The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. Malachi 2:6’”

There has been a fixed search and rescue station on the island since 1920. The station belongs to the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, SSRS and in the year 2000 the station celebrated its 80th anniversary. The search and rescue station has performed many dangerous assignments during their 80 years of service.