Selbjørn is an

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

Austevoll Austevoll is a municipality and an archipelago in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Midthordland in Western Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Storebø on the island of Huftarøy. Other villa ...

municipality in

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, whe ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The island is the second largest in the municipality (after

Huftarøy Huftarøy is the largest island in the municipality of Austevoll in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies in the Austevoll archipelago, just west of the Bjørnafjorden, south of the Korsfjorden, east of the Mokstrafjorden, and north of the S ...

). Most of the population lives along the northern and eastern coastlines of the island. The commercial centre of Selbjørn is the village of Bekkjarvik, where

Bekkjarvik Church Bekkjarvik Church ( no, Bekkjarvik kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Austevoll Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Bekkjarvik on the eastern part of the island of Selbjørn. It is one of the ...

is located.

Name

Selbjørn is based on the old Norwegian word ''Salbjǫrn'' meaning the bear in the saddle. The interpretation is that sailors and fishermen used Selbjørn as replacement for a more ancient "Hund" meaning quarry. However, "Hund" is the same as the Norwegian word for dog and "Hund" in the meaning of dog was according to old tradition something not to be mentioned at sea. The result being Salbjorn or Selbjørn as the new word for "Hund" (quarry). The island's name was used in naming the fjord that lies immediately to the south,

Selbjørnsfjorden Selbjørnsfjorden is a fjord in Vestland county, Norway. The long fjord flows east-west between the municipalities of Austevoll, Fitjar, and Bømlo. It is a wide fjord that starts at the Slåtterøy Lighthouse at the North Sea in the west and f ...

Geography

The island lies just north of the

on the southern part of the Austevoll

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

. The neighboring island of Stolmen lies just to the west and the island of

lies just to the northeast.

Kongsafjellet

The highest point on the island is the tall mountain Kongsafjellet. Kongsafjellet has a strategic position to overview all the shipping lanes for boats coming from the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and going north/south along the coast and in between the nearby islands. The estate of the historic Viking Kings at

Fitjar Fitjar () is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The municipality is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Fitjar municipality includes the northern part of the island of Stord and the hundreds of surrounding islands, mos ...

was also seen from the hilltop, and due to this and some archaeological findings, it is believed that King

Haakon the Good Haakon Haraldsson (c. 920–961), also Haakon the Good (Old Norse: ''Hákon góði'', Norwegian: ''Håkon den gode'') and Haakon Adalsteinfostre (Old Norse: ''Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri'', Norwegian: ''Håkon Adalsteinsfostre''), was the king o ...

used the hilltop as a scouting location as part of his Vikings security system.

Transportation

Selbjørn is connected to the neighboring islands of Stolmen and Huftarøy by the Stolma Bridge on the west side of the island and the Selbjørn Bridge on the northeast side. The municipality of Austevoll is not connected to the rest of Norway by any roads, so one must take a ferry from the mainland of Bergen to the island of Huftarøy or take a ferry from the large island of

Stord Stord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural ...

to the island of Huftarøy. The ferry from Bergen stops at Hufthammar on the north takes about 35 minutes to get to the island and the ferry from Stord stops at Husavik and takes about 25 minutes. Once on Huftarøy, one must drive to the Selbjørn Bridge to cross over to the island of Selbjørn.Information on "Nordsjøløypa" from Hordaland fylkeskommune

References

External links