Ytste Skotet is a complete, preserved, historical farm located in Fjord Municipality in Møre og Romsdal 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 the ...

. The historic farmyard and museum, which is part of the Sunnmøre Museum Foundation, is located on the steep shores of the Storfjorden in the Sunnmøre district of the county. The farm is located across the fjord from the village of Dyrkorn. The ''Storfjordens Venner'' association owns ''Ytste Skotet'' and has orchestrated the restoration of the farm. The foundation ''Ytste Skotet'' administers the farm's operation and maintenance, employs workers, and serves as general manager.

Name

Ytste Skotet is one of three related farms. The other two are ''Me-Skotet'' (''me'' is local dialect for "middle") and ''Inste Skotet'' (''inste'' is local dialect for innermost). The name ''Skotet'' (pronounced Skøt-e where "ø" sounds like the "u" in "curling" and the "e" like the "o" in fjord) signifies a high elevation projecting point of land.

Operation

The farm is well preserved and maintained. It is a typical pre-industrial operation that remained in use until modern times; the activities still shown here are representative of the old ways of the mountain-and-fjord farms along the Storfjorden. The

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

in the fjord was an important contribution to the farm household economy. The mountain dairy farm (or støl) was still in use, but in the most recent years the cheese was made at the farm rather than at the ''støl''. The farm grew

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

and

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

and had timber sufficient for their own use. To get enough fodder, they harvested hay in the outlying fields; the hay was stored in outlying barns and transported home on a sledge when appropriate snow conditions existed. The buildings and the cultivated landscape, as preserved, reflect this way of operating the farm.

History

The place is mentioned in

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

sources such as the Flateyarbok, Formannsogur, and

Heimskringla ''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derive ...

. Tradition as documented in the sagas tells that there was a farm by this name at this location in the days of King Håkon the Good (i.e., the 10th century). After the serious depopulation of the region resulting from the Black Death in the late 1340s, the farm was again mentioned in historic records in 1606. There are also undocumented sites of constructions which have been identified on the farm. Ane Karoline Vidhammar was the last farmer at ''Ytste Skotet''; she operated the farm with her son, Knut Olav, and her daughter, Jenny Olea, until the farm was vacated in 1954. The place lay

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycl ...

until 1989 when the property, comprising , was assigned to the ''Storfjordens Venner'' (The Friends of the Great Fjord) foundation, which has rehabilitated the buildings and the cultivated landscape. The place has been restored to represent it as it existed when the farm was last in operation.

Future

Norsk Kulturråd The Arts Council Norway ( no, Norsk kulturråd, often shortened to ''Kulturrådet'') is the official arts council for Norway. Based in Oslo, it is a Norwegian state institution created in 1965 as a result of a parliamentary decision in 1964. Art ...

(Norwegian Culture Council) has selected ''Ytste Skotet'' to be one of nine projects in Norway working under the motto "Children, youngsters, and museums". The farm has become a pilot project and the very preservation assumes continuation of the old ways of operating. In the summer season, the foundation receives schools and visitors and keeps courses with possibilities for serving and accommodation.

Access

*Easiest access is by boat from Dyrkorn �
Transport: Dyrkorn - Skotet
*One may also access the farm in a couple of hours by foot traveling over the mountain from Ramstaddalen in Sykkylven Municipality.

Media gallery

File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet04.JPG, View towards Skotet. ''Ytste Skotet'' at the right, Meskotet to the left of the middle and ''Inste Skotet'' outermost left. File:2004-05-28-YtsteSkotet14.JPG, ''Ytste Skotet'' File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet100.JPG, Breastshot

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucket ...

which powered the wood splitting machine in the barn at the farm. File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet79.JPG, ''Ytste Skotet'' File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet88.JPG, The main house File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet109.JPG, Baking crispbread in the kitchen File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet112.JPG, Living room File:2004-05-27-YtsteSkotet27.JPG, Wide and open meadows at ''Ytste Skotet''

References

External links

Olavsrosa

Stiftinga Ytste Skotet

Ytste Skotet

{{coord, 62.4142, 6.8938, format=dms, display=title, region:NO_type:landmark Local museums in Norway Museums in Møre og Romsdal Fjord (municipality) Farms in Møre og Romsdal Historic farms in Norway Farm museums in Norway