Glengshølen is a bay and backwater in the Glomma River, which runs north of the Gleng district in Sarpsborg, while the main course of the Glomma River runs on the other side of Opsund and down Sarpefossen. Hølen is an older word for a place where there is a wider and deeper place in a river, see also the place name Hølen in Vestby municipality.
Glengshølen has been a ferry port for boat traffic to the ferry port of Grønnsund. There was regular boat traffic on this route, first in the period 1852–1855 with the paddle steamer "Colibri" from 1850 and then with the steamship "Krabben" from 1869 to 1947. In 1986, "Krabben" was put into tourist traffic in the summer until it sank in 2000.