Ølve

Ølve has a special soil type. Here one finds an extra hard clay soil. This is especially noticed by those who work with excavating for building foundations and the like. Often it is necessary to use especially big digging machines and sometimes even dynamite in order to break up the compact masses. The reason for this is the growth of the glaciers toward the end of the Ice Age: The clay, that was first deposited in front of the glacier, came under great pressure when the glacier later grew and slid out over the clay.

Åsane

Most associate Åsane with ridges, naturally enough (the Norwegian word for "ridge" is "Ås"). A lesser noticed trait in the landscape are the unusual flat areas that lie between the ridges. The Dalselva River, which was channeled at the end of the 1950s, runs down only 2.5 metres from Lake Langavatnet by Vågsbotn to Flatevad, where it goes over into rapids by Fossekleiva. The layers of gneiss stand nearly vertically, and the mountain surface is so even that one might think it had been planed with a planer.

Vøringsfossen

The official height of Vøringsfossen is 182 metres. A long time before modern measuring methods were invented, natural historians and other curious people tried to measure the height of the waterfall - using different methods - and with different results.

Vinnesleira

Bays that are shallow far out into the sea, with fine sand and clay, are rare in Hordaland. Where they are found, the reason is usually that the edge of the glacier made smaller advances or stopovers when it calved back at the end of the last Ice Age. This is what happened at Vinnesleira.

Vidden

Vesoldo

Folds are to be found everywhere in the remains of the Caledonian mountain chain. Some were formed during the collision with Greenland, others stem from the time when the mountain chain collapsed. Few can compare with the giant fold that remains in the mountain area around Tørvikenuten, Vesoldo and Hellefjellet.

Vernacular arts and crafts

Verftet

Today the name “Verftet” is linked to both a district and conglomeration of buildings lying protected by Fredriksberg castle. The original shipyard was founded in the 1780s by Georg Brunchorst and Georg Vedeler. It was called Gerogenes Verft (the shipyards of the Georgs), and here ships were both built and repaired in the years after 1786.

Vardetangen

Valldalen

Valldalen or Valdalen, the name that the locals used in past times, had been a permanent settlement for a long time, and later the biggest mountain-farm valley in western Norway. Since that time there have been many changes: Most of the fields are no longer in use. Bjørkeskogen, a birch forest that had grown in the valley for thousands of years, took more and more over. And in the valley bottom, the Valldals dam now keeps the artificially large Valldalsvatnet Lake in place.