Halsnøy Kloster was probably founded in 1163-64 by Erling Skakke, after the crowning of his son Mangus: “During the same crowning, Erling Skakke, the king’s father, promised to raise his son to worship at Halsnø Monastry, to Sancto Augustino’s praise and honour”. (Bergen’s Fundats 1580). Whether Erling donated land to the monastery from his own estate or from the king’s, we do not know, but there must have been a large and grand farm here before the monastery was founded.
Those who belonged to this Augustinian monastery were not monks in the normal sense of the word, but priests called regular canons or choir brothers. There were probably no more than 13 choir brothers in the monastery. In addition there were servants and others who were responsible for the running of the monastery.
Halsnøy became one of our biggest and most important monasteries in the Middle Ages. It had large land properties in West Norway, most of them in Sunnhordland and the north part of Ryfylke County. Around 1300 the monastery estate was rebuilt and expanded, and this is how the estate remained until the time of the Reformation. Then decay set in; the monastery had become a noble estate with alternating owners. In 1630 Erik Ottesen of Orning at Stord received authorisation from the king to take out 400 stones from the church ruins to restore the other buildings.
