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![Nils Hertzberg’s prospectus from 1825 of “Ålmerket” and the site of the long ship shed.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvh_390-4.jpg?itok=xZB1WC6Y)
Kinsarvik
Kinsarvik has probably been a centre for the inner Hardanger districts back in prehistory. History tells us that in medieval times there was a marketing place, a “kaupang”, here; a connecting point in the communications between east and west. There were supposedly around 300 residents here but the place was likely wiped out in a great fire.
![Amateur geologist Torgeir Garmo at work taking out crystals from the rock.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fjell_15.jpg?itok=mVKJxkJZ)
Ågotnes- crystals
Road cuts and blast areas are a joy to rock collectors, even if the disturbance to nature is ever so disfiguring. These are the best kinds of places to hunt for crystals, which otherwise are removed by weather and wind. In the Ågotnes area there are especially many beautiful crystals to be found.
![Løno](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fjell_10.jpg?itok=PM-cG2ym)
Løno
Small boat folk in Hordaland know where Løno is. As do many seabirds. With the big ocean at its back and a wide, weather beaten strait ahead of it, Løno is one of Hordaland’s most isolated and exposed recreational areas. The islands west of Sotra are some of the county’s most stable nesting localities for seabirds.
![Midtvatnet](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fjell_27.jpg?itok=816BuZcP)
Fjell river network
There are many river networks out by the coast and they tend to be small and unassuming. The farmer has relied upon the watercourses to run his mill and saw, and it may be that the trout have given him a good source of food in years when the ocean fish failed. In our time, these river networks are being rediscovered for their value in recreation and outdoor life, and several places, tourist trails have been built in order to fully enjoy them.
![Smedholmen, Fitjar](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvh_219-_bu.jpg?itok=RVN_WnRB)
![From Grønafjellet toward Kattnakken.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fi_16.jpg?itok=aYyd-7QK)
Grønafjellet
Mountain plants with their beautiful, colourful flowers are common in high altitude areas in Norway. On the coast there are not so many of them. But, here and there one nonetheless finds mountain plants, and this makes some coastal mountainsides a little bit different. Perhaps the growth on these mountainsides gives us a little glimpse of a distant past?
![Whitefish](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fi_3.jpg?itok=BdQyPUBu)
![Ullensvang](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_393-1.jpg?itok=d1meAEuf)
Ullensvang church
Ullensvang church, situated beside the vicarage, in idyllic surroundings on the headland just inside Lofthus municipality, is mentioned for the first time in written sources in 1309. At that time the present Gothic stone church must have been new. Judging by the style in the western portal and the eastern chancel windows, the church must have been built around 1300 or just before, probably by builders from Bergen influenced by the English Gothic style.
![Aga farmyard](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_389-2x.jpg?itok=Exy3i-3z)
Aga
The grand farm Aga on the west side of Sørfjorden, came under protection in 1937, when the agricultural reform threatened to disperse the old clustered settlement. “Lagmannsstova”, named after the “lagmann” (law speaker) Sigurd Brynjulfsson, was already protected in 1924; one of the authentic profane wooden buildings from the Middle Ages still standing. All the same it is the farmyard itself that is the key cultural monument.
![Today Jåstadstova is placed at Hardanger Folk High School at Lofthus](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_388-1.jpg?itok=XiKCdQX1)
Jåstad
The farm Jåstad, situated a few kilometres north of Agatunet, must have been a grand farm in medieval times. Torolf on Jåstad is mentioned as arbitration moderator in 1293, and in the vaulted corridor at Lyse Kloster Sigurd, farmer at Jåstad, and his wife Sigrid – the king’s kinswoman - are buried.