Kvalvikane

In Ålvik quartz has long been used to produce ferro-silicon. The quartz was collected from the other side of the fjord, from the mountainside above Kvalvikane.

Vargavågen

Frette

Sålesnes

Jondal has one of the country’s oldest slate quarries. Roof tiles have been extracted here since the end of the 1700s, but the quarry is much older. Kvernurdi is mentioned in a diploma in 1421, when Bård Sigurdsson at Torsnes became the owner through a settlement. Already then it must have been customary to cut millstones here.

Einstapevoll- slates

“On the country of Wallestrand…the rock almost everywhere appears to be of a slate-like substance, be it at the seashore, on the farms or in their distant fields”.

Bergenhus

Kvernes

Håkons Hall, Domkirken Church, Bergen Børs Stock Exchange, Permanenten and other well known buildings in Bergen are decorated with soapstone from Øvre Kvernes. The quarry is a big hole in the mountainside by the cliff just east of the farm buildings.