Vormedal is a village in

Karmøy Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is southwest of the town of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kopervik. Most of the municipality lies on ...

municipality in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The village is located about south of the city of Haugesund in

Western Norway Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...

. It sits on the mainland along the

Karmsundet Karmsund is a strait located in Rogaland county, Norway. The long strait separates the island of Karmøy on the west and the mainland of Norway and island of Vestre Bokn in the east. The strait runs through the municipalities of Haugesund, Ka ...

strait, directly across the strait from the village of

Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy (island), Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund (town), Hauge ...

on the island of

. The village has a population (2014) of 2738, giving the village a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of .

History

Vormedal was originally an area consisting mostly of farmland and it has a documented history going back to the early 1500s. Archaeological finds have indicated that the area has been populated for even longer, possibly for as long as 4000 years. The area was originally part of the parish (and municipality) of

. It was situated along the old church route that led churchgoers from the areas around the nearby Førresfjorden in the east as they traveled to visit the

Avaldsnes Church Avaldsnes Church (, formally ''St. Olav's Church at Avaldsnes'', ) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Karmøy Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Avaldsnes on the northern part of the Karmøy (island ...

, after arriving in Vormedal, they had to take a short boat ride across the

. Vormedal was also an important location for travelers coming from the village areas more to the south such as Snik, Røyksund, and Fosen as it was the most direct road to Haugesund. When the

Førre Church Førre Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Tysvær Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Førre, which sits along the European route E134 highway. It is one of the two churches for the Førres ...

in the village of

Førre Førre or Førresfjorden is a village in Tysvær municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located at the northern end of the Førresfjorden. The village has a population (2019) of 3,868 and a population density of . The village ...

opened in 1893, some of the traffic going to and from the church stopped, and when the new main road called ''Spannevegen'' opened in the early 1900s, it connected Haugesund with Røyksund, but it ran east of Vormedal, so a lot of the commercial traffic also stopped. In 1965 the municipality of

was merged with the other municipalities on the island of

to form the new

Karmøy municipality Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is southwest of the town of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kopervik. Most of the municipality lies on ...

. In 1978 the first church on mainland Karmøy was opened,

Norheim Church Norheim Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Karmøy Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Norheim, just south of the town of Haugesund. It is the church for the Norheim parish which is part ...

, located in the village of

Norheim Norheim (in the local speech ''Norem'') is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verb ...

just north of Vormedal. This new church was the centre of a new parish which also included Vormedal. Today, Vormedal mostly consists of large residential areas, with one primary and one lower secondary school; three kindergartens as well as a fire station and a small shopping center. Vormedal also has an

alginate Alginic acid, also called algin, is a naturally occurring, edible polysaccharide found in brown algae. It is hydrophilic and forms a viscous gum when hydrated. When the alginic acid binds with sodium and calcium ions, the resulting salts are k ...

production facility owned by FMC Health and Nutrition.

References

Villages in Rogaland Karmøy {{Rogaland-geo-stub