Wealthy sea captains built this summer refuge on the Tjøme archipelago in 1845, in a stretch of coastline so favored by Norway’s elite that the royal family still summers nearby today. The estate later became Pihls Pensjonat, a boarding house started in 1924 by siblings Frithjof and Daisy Pihl, with Frithjof running the farm while Daisy managed the guests.
His marriage in 1936 to Englishwoman Dorothy Grace Babington, known to everyone as Babs, changed the property’s character entirely: strong-willed and particular about who she let stay, Babs turned the boarding house into an increasingly exclusive retreat with an unmistakable British sensibility. The inn closed during the Second World War and later served as a family summer home before Nina Felling and Harald Andersen bought it in 1983, restoring and expanding the property. It reopened under its current name, Engø Gård, in 2000 and remains the only Norwegian member of Relais & Châteaux.
