- Remove Quarns and mills filter Quarns and mills
- Remove Civil servant dwellings and manors filter Civil servant dwellings and manors
- Remove Trading posts and guesthouses filter Trading posts and guesthouses
- Remove Austrheim filter Austrheim
- Remove Kvinnherad filter Kvinnherad
- Remove Bømlo filter Bømlo
- Remove Stord filter Stord
- Remove Thrust sheets filter Thrust sheets
- Remove Coniferous forests filter Coniferous forests
![Bergesfjellet](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/bo_31.jpg?itok=i9o6PSWe)
![Brandasund Sound, Bømlo](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_218-1_brandasundfly218.jpg?itok=pjloM95Z)
Brandasund
On Gisøya Island, on the west side of Brandasund Sound, there is a very privileged trading post and traveller's Inn from the 1600s, with the North Sea as its nearest neighbour. In 1991 a road was built over Bømlo out to these islands, but for thousands of years the sheltered harbour here was a main stopping place along the outer coast. During the great herring period of the 1700s and 1800s, Brandasund was a centre for the herring fisheries on the Sørafeltet fishing grounds. Today, the area belongs to the municipality of Bømlo.
![Brandvikneset](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/stord_18.jpg?itok=kdiECMrN)
![Espevær around 1915, at “Biekronå”.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_204-1.jpg?itok=Nv-R-Syf)
Espevær- the Trading Post
In the sea west of Bømlo lies Espevær, half an hour’s rowing trip across the sound from Vespestadvågen. This is a well-run and well-maintained local community, established on the back of the rich herring fisheries in the 1850s. It is fishermen, skippers and the tradesmen who have made their mark on the culture in Espevær, with their contacts to the south towards Haugesund and across the North Sea to the British Isles.
![The captain's farm at Fet in Uskedalen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvh_195-1.jpg?itok=7AcmSR3a)
![Finnås and Finnåsvika](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/bo_10.jpg?itok=NqIpTrFN)
Finnås
At Flintaneset by Finnåsvika, in the centre of the municipality, we find the most beautiful and best preserved igneous rocks in western Norway. We must go to Hawaii or Island to find as fine structures as at Bømlo.
![The rectory at Finnes](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/190/kvh_203_finnas_1_150.jpg?itok=MjLf1y2s)
![Gildrehola](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/awfawf.jpg?itok=2AAfbxlk)
![Hiskholmen around 1900](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvh_204-3.jpg?itok=auLrXoCL)
![The green Hisøya Island](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/bomlo_45.jpg?itok=QgN_C4RW)
Hisøya
"I am going to prove to you that I am right". That is what the idealist and county doctor Christian Heitmann is supposed to have said in the early 1890s. He sat together with the parish priest, Kullmann, at Heitmann's home in Stord and discussed whether the islands in western Norway could have been forested or not. The priest thought that the area was too barren and weather-beaten for forest to have been able to grow so far out in the sea. But, Heitmann was sure he was right. He challenged the scepticism and set off to work.