Moster- The old church

Moster is mentioned as a church site already in the time of Olav Tryggvason. According to the sagas the king is supposed to have laid the foundations for the first church at Moster when he came there in 995. That building would have been a stave church - the church standing there today – a stone church with a nave and narrower, straight chancel – was probably founded around 1100. In 1874 a new church was built at Moster. Then the old church was bought by The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments, which is still the owner.

Rubbestadneset

Siggjo

Siggjo is a cone-shaped, volcano-like mountaintop in the part of Hordaland where one finds the best preserved volcanic rocks. The rock types originate from one or several volcanoes that spewed out glowing lava and ash. But, the shape of the mountain, as it appears today, formed later and by completely different forces.

Skogafjellet

You have to travel to Scotland in order to find pine forests similar to those at Bømlo. The nearness to the sea has contributed in different ways to shaping one of the westernmost pine forests in Norway.

Sørøyane

Urangsvågen-Rubbestadneset

In 1868 the first stone workers came to Rubbestadneset to take out the granite for the Skoltegrunns Pier, predecessor of the Skoltegrunns wharf in Bergen. Later granite was also taken out from the area, around Innværs Fjord and UransvågenN. The activity probably peaked around 1900, with over 40 men at work. 15 years later, it was finished.

Borgåsen

In Etne there are no less than four defensive refuges. They are all situated in strategic positions, so that they have served as places of refuge and protection for central parts of the district

The village of Etne

Much of the sand and gravel that the town of Etne is built on was laid down at the end of the Ice Age and is evidence of melting glaciers and roaring meltwater rivers. The uncompacted material in the big terraces leave their unmistakeable mark on the wide elongated valleys.

Etnedeltaet

During the latter half of the 1900s the big natural river deltas on Westland disappeared. Until the 1980s there was still a small, but significant remnant of the original river delta from the Etneelva river, but today most of this, too, is industrial land.

Etne river

There is still life to be found that is just “hanging on a string”. The Etne river has been the most important river for sports- fisherman in Hordaland after salmon fishing in Vosso was temporarily forbidden. As late as 2000, 4 tonnes of salmon and sea trout were taken out of the Etne river, the best fishing for 10 years. In the whole of the county there are only 15-20 rivers that can compete with this haul.