The Fjord Coast Regional- and Geopark

«LIVING LANDSCAPE» The Norwegian Candidate for the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe 2020 - 2021

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The Fjord Coast Regional- and Geopark At the mouth of the mighty Sognefjord, as far west as you can go in Norway, you find four small, but vibrant municipalities: Solund, Fjaler, Askvoll and Hyllestad. They are working together to protect and develop their communities, with and for the local people

Photo: Visit FjordKysten.

In recent years, the people who live here have focused their engagement on preserving the threatened cultural landscape and coastal heaths. Establishing the Fjord Coast Regional- and Geopark has increased their understanding of how important the interaction between landscape and culture is in the region, and how these assets have been affected by changes in resource use and the global climate.

It is important for the municipality to create a sustainable future. We want to use the natural resources we have in our area in sustainable ways. What we are seeing is that, thanks to this project, the Coastal Park is preserving knowledge, and they are now passing it on to new generations. This creates good meeting places. The Coastal Park is building a sense of identity and stewardship of both local communities and the region.

Gunn Ă…mdal Mongstad, Mayor of Solund

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A park for landscape and people In 2012, the government established a programme aimed at contributing to rural development in areas with unique landscapes. Local enthusiasts at the mouth of Sognefjord saw the need for more long-term cooperation locally and regionally. Regional park as a cooperation model was a good match, in accordance with the way people already worked and collaborated in the area. They saw that a park could become a tool for solving many of the district challenges that rural municipalities face.

The national and regional authorities provided funds to start a major project with the primary objective of “establishing a nature- and culture park in Solund”.

The project also had three secondary objectives: 1) expanding the park to a regional park encompassing the surrounding municipalities 2) establishing an outdoor council for the coastal region of Sogn and Fjordane 3) creating models for modern Old Norwegian Sheep farming/ cooperative societies.

All of the goals of the initial work were achieved.

Sognefjorden Coastal Park was established as a member-led society in January 2017. In May 2017, the park was approved by The Norwegian Parks Association as the sixth regional park in Norway. A 10-year charter was drawn up by the local partnership. The charter provides direction and outlines a long-term strategy for the desired development of the park and region. The partnership between municipalities and enterprises on sustainable development and an expressed goal of achieving UNESCO designation, have been central to the work on the park.

At the same time as the Coastal Park developed, The Millstone Park in Hyllestad worked to raise awareness about the unique geology found in this region. As with the Coastal Park a UNESCO designation was an aim. The geology and the millstone centre are central in this work. Following an extensive unification project, the geology project merged with the Coastal Park in December 2020.

At the same time, the park changed its name to the Fjord Coast Regional- and Geopark and is now Norway’s first combined regional and geological park.

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The Fjord Coast Outdoor Council was established in 2017 by Askvoll, Florø and Solund. Today Bremanger, Kinn, Stad and Stryn are also member municipalities, and the board has changed its name to the Fjords Outdoor Council.

The Outdoor Council is a very important partner for the Coastal Park, and they collaborate well together on various environmental initiatives and projects. The main mission is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy outdoor activities that promote health, well-being and eco-friendly activities in the local environment and region. Managing marine litter has been a key activity right from the very start. Some 54 metric tons of plastic and marine debris were cleared from the member municipalities’ beaches in 2019.

After 6 years of project work, development and testing, and not least waiting for completely new electronic fence technology (NOFENCE) to be officially approved, Hardbakke Old Norwegian Sheep Society was officially established in March 2020.

The Sheep Society is an especially good, concrete example of how the Coastal Park operates as a cooperation platform for achieving key sustainable development goals together. In this case villages, schools, kindergartens, healthand care services, private individuals and municipalities joined forces with the efficient Old Norwegian Sheep breed, to reclaim an overgrown recreation area.

A coastal landscape that over time had become inaccessible to the public.

Area and population within the boundaries of the Coastal Park Municipality

Inhabitants 1. january 2020

Area (km²)

802 inhabitants

228 km²

Hyllestad

1 328 inhabitants

259 km²

Askvoll

3 011 inhabitants

326 km²

2 802 inhabitants

417 km²

7 943

1230 km²

Solund

Fjaler Total for the four municipalities:

To move a large and heavy boat, one must cooperate and coordinate a joint effort. A good example to describe the park model. Photo: David Zadig.

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Celebrating the national day. In a municipality with 1 700 islands, the parade is of course by boat. Photo: David Zadig.

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Bottom-up park development Unlike national parks, regional- and geoparks are based on the ‘bottom-up’ principle. The Coastal Park now has around 40 members and partners that include municipalities, enterprises, voluntary groups and private individuals. It is a democratic organisation in which the partners have a huge influence on the park’s priorities and activities. Every member is entitled to vote at the annual general meeting.

Typically, people in these sparsely populated areas at the west coast has more than one job and retrieves the revenue from different assignments. They are flexible, patient people who understand that it takes initiative and good cooperation to get things done. These qualities, together with the spectacular natural qualities of the region, are a very good fit with the concept that regional parks represent: a platform for cooperation across non-profit and commercial interests, and a more holistic way of thinking and working with the landscape values.

Both the local business sector and the municipalities were quick to get on board and support the idea of establishing a regional park. And ever since, they have faithfully supported and developed the Coastal Park as a cooperative platform.

What is a regional park?

The mission of regional parks in Norway is to increase cooperation regarding the caretaking and further enhancement of natural- and cultural values in defined landscape- and identity regions. Regional parks contribute to local value creation and to strengthen sustainable development initiatives. Regional parks develop sustainable products and experiences based on local roots and collaboration with local businesses, organisations and public authorities. This is how ‘living landscapes’ are created through preservation, development and cooperation.

Regional parks do make a difference in strengthening local identity, and for sustainable development and tourism. The working areas are rural development, landscape management, sustainable tourism and heritage interpretation. The communal efforts and social value creation are triggered through long-term partnerships, cooperation and participation. Regional parks work across sectors and in the spaces where sectoral authorities often come up short. Regional parks are organised under the Norwegian Parks Association and are anchored in the articles of the European Landscape Convention.

The park’s scope is based on the qualities that characterise the area and for this region the coastal culture, the geology and the ancient cultural landscape were the obvious themes. The park is thus built on elements from other previous efforts in the region, including inspiration from an earlier regional coastal heritage project initiated by the regional authorities.

Preserving the coastal landscape has been a key motivation in the work on the park. Only a few farmers and Old Norwegian Sheep Societies still knew how to manage the coastal heath, and the question was how to raise awareness among the inhabitants about the landscape they lived in and stop the regrowth that was starting to change the 5,000-year-old open horizon.

Roar Moe at Litle Færøy conveys the action borne knowledge of coastal culture for American students from Prescott College. Photo: David Zadig.

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What is a geopark?

A geopark focuses on geology as its main theme and aims to link dissemination and value creation to an area’s geological heritage.

UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development.

A UNESCO Global Geopark uses its geological heritage, in connection with all other aspects of the area’s natural and cultural heritage, to enhance awareness and understanding of key issues facing society, such as using the planet’s resources sustainably, mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing the risks of natural disasters.”

The Vikings started a large-scale stone industry The area has a rich Viking history, and also tells a lesser-known side of this period: The Vikings as skilled craftsmen and traders. Once stone was the gold of Hyllestad. In hundreds of quarries, stonemasons carved millstone after millstone and loaded them into heavy boats that shipped the stones to the whole world. At that time, millstone were fundamental items: No bread, porridge or beer without the mill!

Ingolv Arnarson from Rivedal took this local culture with him to Iceland as early as the mid-800s. In 1066 the Vikings gathered the largest armada of longboats ever at Utvær in Solund, the westernmost point in Norway and the Coastal Park, before they crossed the North Sea to try to conquer England. The king, Harald Hardrada, was mortally wounded at Stamford Bridge, and the battle heralded the beginning of the end of the Viking era.

Kayaking at «Lågøystolane». Solund ś local stonehenge created by nature. Photo: Magnus R. Furset. Saint Olav’s Cross in Korssund has been here since the Viking Age Photo: Visit FjordKysten.

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Around 5,000 years ago, Stone Age people started to clear forest from the Norwegian coast with the aid of axes, fire and grazing animals. The landscape formed by this cultivation is called coastal heath, and a continuous belt of it once stretched along the entire coast of Europe, all the way from Portugal in the south to Lofoten in the north.

Coastal heath is an open landscape dominated by dwarf bushes, especially heather (Calluna vulgaris) and used to account for around 2 per cent of Norway’s total area. Norway has just three per cent arable land. Coastal heath was therefore an important resource and actively exploited for a long time, and at the beginning of the 1900s it also stretched far up the fjords as well. This habitat type is only found along the coast due to the mild climate that allows grazing animals to be kept outdoors all year round.

The industrialisation of farming led to many farmers either ceasing operations or intensifying them. Intensification often involves the use of artificial fertilisers, which favours plants that prefer nitrogen and displaces others from the fertilised areas.

When undergrowth and forest grow back, it becomes too dark and cold for many of the flowers to survive. Cultural landscapes encourage the growth of warmth loving low plants and it does not take many years without cultivation before flowers and insects do not flourish there anymore and vanish from the area. When this happens in all of the areas a species lives in, the species becomes extinct.

More than 80 per cent of all heather heathland in Europe has been lost since the beginning of the 1800s and coastal heath is now characterised as endangered (EN) and listed on the Norwegian Red List of threatened plant species. The main reasons for this are overgrowing, forest planting and spreading, including the Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), cultivation and fertilisation, making agricultural land biologically unproductive through development, and nitrogen enrichment of the soil from the air and precipitation.

If heather heathland is to be preserved, it has to be managed in the same way as Stone Age people did 5,000 years ago, through burning back and grazing. Norway has the northernmost heather heathland areas in the world and therefore has a special responsibility to manage them. The Coastal Park is now preserving the old traditions through through the Old Norwegian Sheep Society and the participation of local people and kindergarten and school children.

Brurastakken (the bride’s skirt ), an example of the geological processes that have taken place “The mouth of the troll”, Lihesten in locally showing traces of no less than three mountain chain folds. Photo: Per Storemyr.

Hyllestad. Photo: David Zadig.

The Laukeland waterfalls in Fjaler. Photo: Lillian Herland.

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Text: Sabima.

The world’s northernmost coastal heath

Old Norwegian Sheep create value and a living landscape The Old Norwegian Sheep Society focuses on this old and traditional breed, which are also known as ‘wild sheep’. They produce meat and wool from the marginal outfield resources found in coastal heath, at the same time as they manage the landscape, they ensure open views for locals.

Old Norwegian Sheep is Norway’s fourth approved Slow Food Presidium.

Presidia are small projects in which producers join forces with Slow Food to establish guidelines for quality and genuine products, and to promote the use of the products, not least locally. Presidia have a special status in the Ark of Taste, which encompasses products with special regional and historical links, as well as craftsperson-like production.

Genetically speaking, this small hardy breed of sheep is the same as it was a thousand years ago, fully adapted to the natural and climate conditions found right on the coast. It is expert at making the maximum use of the resources found here.

By preserving coastal heath, we are also preserving species diversity. Burning back and grazing increases biodiversity and is important for birds and insects.

Preserving the endangered coastal heather by grazing and burning. Photo: Pascal Baudonell.

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Coastal heath is not one of the most species-rich habitats, but it is important for the species that have adapted to this landscape. For some species of plants that are mainly found in Western Norway, coastal heath is their most important habitat. Some birds and insects are totally reliant on coastal heath for their survival in Norway.

Bell heather (Erica cinerea) is a rare species that is largely only found in coastal heath. Other species for which coastal heath is the most important habitat include wood bitter vetch (Vicia orobus), northern eyebright (Euphrasia micrantha), slender St John’s-wort (Hypericum pulchrum), heath milkwort (Polygala serpyllifolia) and common lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica).

coastal heath. They have suffered a sharp decline in numbers due to intensified farming and regrowth, among other things.

Although today the species in this cultural landscape depend on human management, they evolved over hundreds of thousands of years on the natural steppes that previously existed in Europe. These areas were kept open by fire, wind fall or immense herds of wild grazing animals. As people cultivated the steppes and hunted the large grazers almost to extinction, the fungi, plants and insects moved into the cultural landscape.

If we do not maintain the cultural landscape, we will lose a multitude of species that may be of greater value to humans than we are currently aware of, and which have their own intrinsic value.

Bird species like twites (Carduelis flavirostris) and the endangered common stonechat (Saxicola torquata) depend on coastal heath for their survival in Norway. The Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis) is another species that relies on

Students gathering sheep at the mouth of The Sognefjord. Photo: Trude Søilen.

Coastal heather is important for several red-listed species, including the rare purple heather that only grows furthest out on the coast where the climate is mild enough for it to overwinter. Photo: Trude Søilen.

The 5,000-year-old tradition of burning heather has formed the open coastal landscape in the Coastal Park. Photo: Pascale Baudonnel.

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Text: Sabima.

The biodiversity of coastal heath

Hardbakke Sheep Society Many of those who live in this distinctive coastal area today do not realise that it is a manmade cultural landscape and have no idea that the open, treeless view was shaped by our forefathers who cultivated the area with fire and sheep husbandry. The people who live in this landscape have a connection to it and want to preserve it, but often lack the knowledge and skills to do so. The ancient farming traditions of back burning heather and roaming sheep, which used to be handed down from generation to generation, have almost completely disappeared and only a few local farmers and landowners still keep free roaming sheep. Solund was one of the first to establish Old Norwegian Sheep cooperative societies on the islands in order to preserve the landscape. These are still operating and were the inspiration behind Hardbakke Old Norwegian Sheep Society.

The initiative takers behind the coastal park wanted to get villages involved, both children and young people, in order to continue the important old traditions, and asked themselves how they could learn from those who still had the know-how and exploit the outfield and coastal heath as a resource and, at the same time, preserve a 5,000-year-old tradition of burning back the undergrowth.

The answer was to establish a local Old Norwegian Sheep Society owned and run by the locals themselves in cooperation with the municipality and schools. Through action-borne knowledge, the locals are now learning how to produce their own food in practice, right outside their living room door, just like generations have done before them.

The Sheep Society is organised as a cooperative society in which the locals buy and own as many shares as they wish. The society currently has 114 ownership shares owned by 92 members. These are distributed between local business actors, private individuals of all ages, municipalities, schools, kindergartens, health and care actors and others.

All unitholders are invited to take part in the tasks involved in year-round Old Norwegian Sheep husbandry, like clearing the landscape, burning back, herding, feeding, marking, medicating, slaughtering and processing.

The sheep roam outfield areas that can stretch right into the centre of the municipality in Hardbakke. They are very tame and love to be petted and fed by both the children and adults that meet them.

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The sheep in the local sheep society are very tame. Photo: Stig Steinsund.

Modern fencing technology – Nofence The animals are not fenced in but wear their ‘fences’ around their necks while they roam, in the form of a collar, powered by solar batteries. This is brand new, revolutionary technology, and the Sheep Society was one of the pilots for Nofence, testing out the system. The new fencing technology means that sheep can graze in areas that used to be completely inaccessible.

Nofence is the world’s first virtual fence solution and was specially designed for grazing animals. By focusing on sustainability, Nofence has developed a technology that makes it easier to let animals graze while ensuring that animal welfare is properly addressed. The collars are equipped with solar cells and transmit signals to an app in which the owner can monitor all of the animals’ movements.

Photo: Stig Steinsund.

Wild sheep are sustainable food production The wild sheep live out in the coastal heath all year round, where they find all its food. The animals are completely adapted to a life in these surroundings. It also goes ashore to eat seaweed as an important dietary supplement. In this way, it utilizes marginal resources, which are not used in any other way, and converts the resources into meat and wool.

Such food production, completely without concentrate or other supplementary feed, is very viable.

Frode Kalgraff is a local producer who knows how to process the sheep meat in a traditional way. He is also Hardbakke Old Norwegian Sheep Society´s professional aid when it comes to preparing the meat for the Christmas dinners, in which meat from wild sheep in various forms traditionally should be on the menu.

Photo: Trude Søilen.

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The coastal landscape in Solund is often called the Island Kingdom of Solund. Photo: David Zadig.

The majestic Lihesten, a famous landmark that towers 700 meters above the Hyllestadfjord.

Photo: David Zadig.

Solund Municipality

Hyllestad Municipality

This is the westernmost municipality in Norway. With 1,700 islands, islets and skerries in the far west of the mouth of the well-known Sognefjord, Solund is a popular destination for anyone looking for authentic coastal culture and exciting experiences in nature. The local people are easy to get to know and happy to share their tips with visitors. Once here, you should not miss the chance to go island hopping with the local post boat/passenger route, or go on a lighthouse safari to Utvær, Norway’s westernmost point.

The municipality is known for its large-scale production of millstones, production that has probably taken place here for more than a thousand years.

Kayak paddling and hiking are popular activities in an area of very distinctive landscape and geology, where the conglomerate and mighty glacial boulders from the Ice Age are clearly visible to everyone. Businesses in Solund are largely based around maritime industries and the municipality has around 800 inhabitants, and is often referred to as the ‘Island Kingdom of Solund’.

The Coastal Park represents local engagement – it is natural for the municipality to be part of and support it. The Coastal Park is a means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and fulfilling the Landscape Convention.

Gunn Åmdal Mongstad, Mayor of Solund

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The Millstone Park in Hyllestad is an exciting exhibition centre for this rare history. A model has been developed for teaching schoolchildren about the geology and millstone production; this has become known as the Hyllestad model. Visitors should not miss the fantastic demonstration of the ancient tradition of burning limestone.

Shipping, farming and aquaculture have provided the basis for most of the employment in the municipality, which has around 1,300 inhabitants.

Spectacular Lihesten is a famous coastal landmark and probably one of the most photographed mountains in our region.

How to frame a landscape – landscape art in Bulandet. Photo: David Zadig.

Living coastal culture – Jensbua in Fjaler. Photo: Ove Losnegård.

Askvoll Municipality

Fjaler Municipality

Located on the northern side of Dalsfjord, it has a rich Viking history. The village Rivedal has has a statue commemorating Ingolv Arnarson, who founded the first settlement in Iceland in 874.

Located on the southern side of the beautiful Dalsfjord, it stretches from the high valley right out to the coast. The municipality has a long history of industry and education. In recent times, the municipality has made a name for itself as an innovative IT environment.

From the centre of the municipality, Askvoll, one can see the island of Atløy directly to the west. This is mentioned many times in the viking sagas of Snorri Sturluson. The municipality is also home to Norway’s westernmost fishing community, Bulandet and Værlandet, a favourite destination for island hopping, cycling and hiking. Here, the famous landmark Alden (481 metres above sea level) rises straight up from the sea. Alden is one of the most prominent landmarks on the coast. It is locally known as the ‘Norwegian horse’ and is a very popular destination. Another landmark is the geological phenomenon called Brurastakken, the mountain that clearly illustrates the area’s geological heritage. The municipality has around 3,000 inhabitants and has a rich industrial history to showcase, as well as all of the activities within farming and fishing.

There are many exciting aspects for the municipality of being a member of the Coastal Park. It can create a common sense of identity for this area, which we have been seeking for a long time.

Ole André Klausen, Mayor of Askvoll

It is home to the region’s only public upper secondary school, as well as United World College, an international upper secondary school with 200 pupils from around the world.

Fjaler is also known for being the birthplace of the popular poet Jakob Sande (1906 – 1967). The Jakob Sande centre in Dale is both a visitors’ centre and a national centre for the narrative arts. The municipality has a rich cultural life.

The Nordic Artists Centre is located here, and the municipality has its own popular theatre festival.

The coastal cultural environment surrounding the Jensbua Coastal Cultural Centre and the replica of the old traditional boat ‘Bakkejekta’ are just two of things that must be experienced when you visit Fjaler. The population of the municipality numbers around 2,800.

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A living coastal culture for the future Common to all of these municipalities is the fact that coastal culture plays a prominent role and many of the Coastal Park’s partners have links to fishing, ferry services, building preservation and tourism, and they work well together. This authentic living coastal culture helps to ensure visitors to the region good memorable experiences.

First aid for coastal culture monuments In 2017, four of the Coastal Park partners that work in carpentry and boat and building preservation decided to work together on an annual joint project to save a coastal cultural heritage monument. The initiative came from Nedre Jølster Bilelag AS one of the companies that wanted to preserve coastal cultural heritage monuments. They wanted to focus on the value that such old boats and buildings have, and what they mean for society and coastal culture.

The companies signed a partnership agreement with the Coastal Park in order to increase expertise and raise awareness of this field. The Coastal Park is a facilitator and coordinator of the initiative and contacts landowners and often applies for funds from the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Fund and others. The partners in this voluntary work effort are: The Norwegian Coastal Culture Academy. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Solund Coastal Culture Academy. It works in building preservation and has a carpentry department. It also offers guided tour experiences.

Dissemination and teaching are key elements, and it works with both primary and secondary school levels. The company arranges annual outdoor schools and courses in various subjects linked to coastal living. It also offers consultancy services. The Norwegian Coastal Cultural Academy (Norsk Kystkulturakademi AS) was one of the initiative takers behind the park and the Old Norwegian Sheep Society, and had project owner- and manager responsibilities during the establishment phase.

Jensbua Coastal Cultural Centre is a building preservation and coastal cultural centre that provides advice on and help with restoring buildings and boats. It arranges courses and seminars on traditional crafts and other relevant topics. It

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Once a year, four partners in the Coastal Park meet to save coastal cultural heritage. Photo: Trude Søilen.

Ove Losnegård, carpenter and boat builder has specialised in building preservation and traditional boat building and has 30 years’ experience in planning and carrying out restorations of old buildings and other cultural heritage monuments. He also teaches old building techniques like grindbygg timber framing and is essential for the annual BAS course at Solund.

Nedre Jølster Bilelag AS is one of Norway’s leading companies of restoration of old and listed buildings. It is commissioned by clients such as the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage to repair stave churches and other listed buildings. It holds courses in Western Norwegian building practices and restoration and has for the last 10 years been an instructor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) with practical courses in the full-scale construction of traditional structures.

Other members and activities in the Coastal Park The coastal park’s members include many private individuals, all of whom have a keen interest in coastal culture and landscapes. A number of the partners are also involved in farming, often with Old Norwegian Sheep that spend all year outside. In addition to grazing on the coastal heath, the farms produce and sell meat, leather, wool and horns. The partners involved in farming are Kystlandbruket in Leknessund, Tangenes Gard, Nils Ch. Bjørgo in Sandvik and Sørværet Villsau in Værlandet.

Frode Kalgraff is a local food producer who knows how to use local produce in traditional ways.

Visit FjordKysten is a destination company with responsibility for destination development and marketing of the region. Together with local tourism actors that are also partners in the Coastal Park, such as Bauge & Bahus, Solund Eigedom, Værlandet Havhotell and others, it works to develop sustainable nature and cultural experiences all year round.

It does so in close cooperation with members that supply the experiences, transport, food and accommodation. Sulejet AS and Vidar

Hop Skyssbåtar AS are local boat owners that offer island hopping and lighthouse safaris. These popular tours are, like cultural tours, guided cycling and kayaking tours, hiking and storm watching, key focus areas for tourism in the region. Sunnfjord Utvikling is also a member of the Coastal Park and and seeks to cooperate on tourism initiatives in the region.

Fisheries have always been a cornerstone of these coastal communities.

The first fisherman-farmer was found well-preserved beneath Grønehellaren in Ytre Sula, a 15-year-old boy who had both fished and hunted wild boar around 6,000 years ago.

Lending Rederi from Ytre Sula and Barstein AS in Gåsvær both represent the modern fisherman-farmer that creates great value for the region today.

Photo: Ove Losnegård.

has a regular voluntary team that gathers every Monday to maintain buildings and boats at its authentic, well-preserved boathouse in Fjaler.

Bergen school of Architecture The teaching at Bergen School of Architecture (BAS) draws on Western Norwegian vernacular building culture that has developed within the context of a particular climate and landscape. During their studies, students experience and have to engage with the different landscape spaces and patterns of settlement inland and along the coast through a mixture of analysis and practical work such as repairing wear and tear on old boathouses and sheds.

Interdisciplinary collaboration with fields such as meteorology, landscape ecology and construction history are important elements of the core education. The school is a partner in a science project named “Å vøla eit landskap” and first-year students live in tents in Solund for a month each autumn to learn about local construction history.

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Opened in 1995, by HRH Queen Sonja of Norway, United World College Red Cross Nordic is the UWC in the Nordic region. Sponsored by Nordic governments and the Red Cross, the college focuses on the promotion of humanitarian and environmental concerns and Nordic values. The college is located by the beautiful Flekkefjord in Fjaler and has 206 students aged 16-19 years old from more than 85 countries.

UWC is like a window to the world and wants to be a partner that can contribute to development in the exciting intersection between the national and local levels.

Photo: Arne Osland.

UNITED WORLD COLLEGE (UWC)

JAKOB SANDE CENTRE FOR NARRATIVE ARTS

THE MILLSTONE PARK The Millstone Park in Hyllestad is an outdoor museum in the largest stone quarry landscape from the Viking period and Middle Ages in Northern Europe. The museum shows another side of history: the Vikings as skilled craftsmen and traders. Stone was the Hyllestad’s gold. Stonemasons worked in hundreds of stone quarries, carving millstone after millstone to be shipped across Norway to Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the islands in the Atlantic. Millstones were a basic necessity. No millstone meant no food.

Photo: Espen Mills.

The Jakob Sande Centre in Dale in Fjaler is both a visitor centre, with activities such as guided tours, and a café and cultural events, and a centre for the narrative arts in Western Norway. The Jakob Sande Centre for Narrative Arts conducts research into and disseminates Jakob Sande’s poetry and the Nynorsk language and culture and seeks to bring out a diversity of stories and new voices. The centre is based in Klokkargarden, although it arranges activities throughout the region in collaboration with various organisations and environments, including the Fjord Coast Regional and Geopark. The centre is interested in both national and international collaborations. Its target groups are children and young people (in kindergarten, school and their free time), students, teachers, the especially talented and people from all environments with different cultural and professional backgrounds.

LITLE FÆRØYNA COASTAL CULTURAL SOCIETY Many Norwegians have heard about Roar Moe on Litle Færøyna. He lives on a restored crofter’s farm on an island with one house and is the only permanent resident. The little farm was restored so that new generations may experience a piece of Norways coastal life as it were a hundred years ago. You can see both the place and the man for yourself if you join the postal boat and go island hopping from Solund to Askvoll.

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THINGS TO DO IN THE PARK ISLAND HOPPING WITH THE POST BOAT Join the local postal route to Solund, Bulandet and Værlandet, a trip to the westernmost islands in Norway. Here you can get close to the unique scenery and everyday lives of the people who live on the islands. Solund Municipality is home to more than 1,700 islands, islets and skerries. The local post boat offers guided tours among these islands where you are likely to spot wildlife such as white-tailed eagles, seals and otters, which are all common sights in the area.

The boat calls at the historic trading post on Gåsvær, a small island far out at sea. Anne Marie – a local farmer, politician and tourist host welcomes travellers with coffee, pancakes and stories, before they travel on to Bulandet in Askvoll.

COASTAL CULTURE PADDLING Get a taste of the salt and authentic coastal culture of the westernmost part of Norway, in the magical region where the mighty Sognefjord opens out and meets the rough North Sea. A kayaking tour is the best way to explore the landscape in Solund, following in the wake of thousands of fishermen and women who have always used the water as their highway. The guides from Sognefjord Active will help you with everything and provide all the equipment. No previous experience necessary. During the tour, you will learn about the local history, geology and wildlife, and see some typical examples of the rich coastal culture in the area.

BLOW YOUR MIND WITH STORM WATCHING Storm watching in the winter is a quite exotic experience in the region where the seasonal storms of the Atlantic Ocean meet the mainland, and where the landscape has been carved out by the wind and waves. The landscape is stunning, with thousands of islands, mountains rising straight up out of the sea, narrow fjords and white, sandy beaches. This is a raw, unfiltered part of Norway and a perfect spot for storm watching.

VISIT THE MILLSTONE PARK Book a tour in the old quarry landscape and experience a somewhat different story about the Vikings and their everyday life. This outdoor museum is Northern Europe’s largest medieval quarry. Here you can join a young guide in the quarry and try your hand as a craftsperson: working with stone, milling corn, baking bread or weaving.

paddling at Norway ́s westernmost point, Utvær lighthouse in Solund.

Photo: Magnus R. Furset/ Kayak The Fjords/ Fjord Norge.

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This is like a Kinder Egg! We are managing and preserving the landscape while producing food from marginal outfield resources and simultaneously creating a meeting place and learning arena for passing on knowledge. In addition to this come the public health and integration aspects. Participation and a sense of ownership in relation to these ancient traditions builds identity and pride. And that of course means that it is actually like multiple Kinder Eggs.

Trude J. Søilen, general manager of the Fjord Coast Regional and Geopark

Photo: David Zadig.

CONTACT INFORMATION Trude Søilen · E-mail: post@fjordkystparken.no / trudesoilen@gmail.com · Tel.: +47 481 05 774 · www.fjordkystparken.no

A til Å · www.atilaa.no