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Sæbøtunet in 1934

Sæbøtunet in 1934 (phoyo: H. Vreim, owner Riksantikvaren).

When you come into the well-tended farm steading at Sæbø just above Etne centre, you get the impression of a Sunnhordland farm from well before the time of the tractor; from the time of the horse and the scythe. The hamlet at Sæbø, one of the farms neighbouring to Gjerde, was taken over by Sunnhordland Folk Museum in 1938.

Sæbø is the only one of the farms around Gjerde which has not been divided up into several farming units. A title document accounts for 15 buildings on the farm, that is: two smokehouses, a storehouse, a scullery (rough kitchen), a storehouse on stilts, a bakehouse, a cowshed, a hayshed, a sheep shed, a stable, a manure shed, a wood shed, a wooden storeroom, millstone and a smithy. We do not know how many of these buildings were joined together, but several of them could have belonged to farmers who lived there with a small allowance. Today there are still 10 buildings standing on the farm. The bakehouse (probably a scullery) has gone, and the house for the old folk - a smokehouse and a store knocked together - had been moved to another farm. The dwelling house which is standing today has been built from a smokehouse and room with special windows with a guest’s bed and clothes chests on the first floor and bed spaces for children and youths on the window ledge.

The steading at Sæbø is divided into an inner steading and an outer steading. Here there is a hayshed for the people who lodged on the farm and a large wooden stave barn. Between the staves in the trelliswork construction and the outer walls there are galleries - a building custom that goes far back in time.

  • Sæbøtunet at Etne

Sæbøtunet

Sæbøtunet (Svein Nord).

  • Moe, T.L. (1988) Sæbøtunet: bygde-tunet i Etne, 1938-1988. I: Sunnhordland Årbok. Stord, Sunnhordland museum, s. 51-75.
  • Sydnes, K. (1937) Sæbøtunet i Etne: og arbeidslivet der. I: Sunnhordland Årbok. Stord, Sunnhordland museum, s. 20-28.
  • Sydnes, K. (1950) Gjerdekyrkja i Etne. I: Sunnhordland Årbok. Stord, Sunnhordland museum, s. 36-41.