Bjørsvik

The industrial settlement Bjørsvik

Espevikpollen

Espevær- lobster park

Frette

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.

Hovdanes

Kolåseidet

The little cowshed which lies on the fence at Kolåseidet, constructed in connection with the stone fence, has put its mark on the cultural landscape. On the border between the home fields and the forest, the cowshed is the very symbol of a simple resource management - the division between the cropland and the grazing grounds. And the way it was built has its roots far back in time.

Kvernhusvågen

Lure Fjord

Both Lure Fjord and Lindåsosane to the inside give good living conditions for rare marine organisms: jellyfish, shellfish and fish. These include animals that migrated in after last the Ice Age, when the sea level was higher. Eventually, as the land rose, some of these populations became isolated.

Veafjorden

Some decades ago, Veafjord and the currents in toward the bigger rivers were the most likely places to see harbour seals in Hordaland. In the summer flocks lay on the beach and waited for the salmon to trickle in. Sometimes they also followed the fish a little way up the river.