Engesund

For more than 350 years Engesund has been a place for hostelries and trading in the Fitjar islands. The place is centrally placed in the shipping lane, with a sheltered harbour close to the exposed Selbjørnsfjorden. Engesund was once part of the great network of historical stopover places on the coast.

Fitjar- the King's farm

In front of Fitjar Church there is a memorial stone, sculpted by Anne Grimdalen and erected in 1961, for the thousand-year memorial of one of the most dramatic events in Norway’s history, the Battle of Fitjar. This was the place where Norway’s king, Håkon the Good, suffered his fatal injury in the fight with Eirik’s sons, probably in the year 961.

Færøysund

The old trading post lies at the sound between Stord and Færøy in Langenuen. There was a country store and steamship forwarding agent up to 1964. The trade was then moved over to the new ferry harbour of Sandvikvåg.

Hopland

The farmhouses at holding No. 15 at Hopland are built together to form a long, continuous building, with dwelling house, hayshed and cowshed built in one row. There have been many such joined structures in the coastal communities, but today there are few remaining. If we travel to the other side of the North Sea, to the Faeroes, Shetland and the Orkney Islands, we find corresponding features in the older building traditions. We find ourselves in a large North Atlantic cultural area.

Kjelstraumen

If you take the sea route north you have several options. The various routes have been dealt with in history, and through the Middle Ages the traffic increased as well as the trading with Nordland in fish and herring, feather and down. One of the central routes passes through Kjelstraumen, in the sound between Ulvøy and Bakkøy. This has been a place for a guesthouse since 1610, with Royal Letter of Privilege, part of the large network of trading post and guesthouse locations along the coast.

Kvalvågen

Kvernhusvågen

Leirvågen

A marsh is a grassy meadow that is strongly influenced by salt from the sea. This type of nature is abundant in Denmark, among other places. The flatlands along the river that run out by Leirvågen, are the municipalities' largest marsh. At spring tide, these flatlands are flooded underwater for several hundred metres in over land.

Lyngoksen

Purkebolsvatnet

Lake Purkebolsvatnet is perhaps western Norway's largest sleeping city - for birds. They come in the thousands, usually in later summer and autumn. The barn swallows alone number 10 000 - 12 000 at their most numerous.