Øvre Folkedal

Folkedal, which today is like a small “detour” from the main highway, was in the Middle Ages centrally situated in one of the most important roads between Hardanger and Voss. This is the road that Olav Haraldsson travelled in 1023, when he came from the royal farm at Avaldsnes for a meeting with the Voss inhabitants about the new belief. The road passes across the mountain pasture Krossaset and down Bordalen to Vangen.

On one of the lowest holdings in Øvre Folkedal, where the shared hamlet was formerly situated, there is an old smokehouse still left in the yard. The age of the house is uncertain, but the dimension of the timber brings the thoughts back to the Middle Ages. The house has had a very elaborate smoke vent, and we can still see marks from arches and twisted cord motifs on it. This house was in use up to the first half of the 1900s.

The small hamlet by the fjord in Folkedal was formerly a port of call for the steamship. Up to the 1960s there were two merchants here.

Bogeslag og tausnoingsmotiv på ein vekselbjelke

Bogeslaga og tausnoingsmotiva på vekselbjelken – den tverrbjelken som går over to sperrefag ved store ljorer – tyder på at stova kan vera frå mellomalderen (Egil Korsnes).