Ulvund

One of the oldest farms in Myrkdalen, Ulvund, is recognized as one of 14 areas in Hordaland having an especially valuable cultural landscape. The dirt road runs along a steep slope down toward Lake Myrkdalsvatnet. The flattest field, which today is harvested for silage, used to be an old grain field, while the slopes were old hayfields.

Botnen

Fyksesundet and Botnagrenda present a fine experience of the landscape and cultural history; a geographically isolated local settlement with extensive cultural contact with the outside world.

Hårbrekke

Nes

The farm Nes lies directly inside Mundheim on a forested headland in the fjord between Mundheimsvika and Bondesundet, a farm with an attractive and well-kept cultural landscape.

Tangarås

From his loft window on the doctor’s farm at Tangarås the young Hans Ernst Kinck had a view of the fjord and the Mauranger mountains. The fjord settlements in West Norway made a strong impression on the young boy when his family moved from Setesdal, from “the stifling mystique of the ballad”, to Strandebarm in 1876. The new district doctor bought the old captain’s farm at Tangarås, which had for some time been a military head farm after Håbrekke further into the settlement.

Vikøy

Through Adolph Tidemand’s detailed close-ups of smokehouses in Kvam, the vicarage in Vikøy, where he lived during his painting trips through Hardanger, has obtained a central position in the Norwegian national romanticism.

Helleland

The old “recorder residence” at Helleland has been both residence for the district recorder and officer’s residence. The main building, which came under protection in 1924, was built in 1764 by the curate Christian Heiberg. When he was appointed parish priest in Jølster, he sold the farm to the state employee Geelmuyden, who resold the farm to Hans De Knagenhielm in 1774. He was the head of “Søndre Hardangerske kompani” (a local army division).

Hesthamar

Hesthamar, some kilometres north of Utne, is one of the oldest residences for a district recorder in the country. In 1637, barely 50 years after the office of the district recorder was established in 1591, the local people bought this residence from the bailiff Lauritz Johnsen on Torsnes. From 1659 the district recorders lived here, intermittently, up to 1790. This is when Helleland at Lofthus became a “recorder” farm.

Husedalen

Ferstad

Ferstad is well worth a visit. The farm lies on a little hillock south of Lekven: a beautiful official residence from the 1700s.