Ølve is a village in
Kvinnherad
Kvinnherad is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland, along the Hardangerfjorden. The municipality was the 5th in siz ...
municipality in
Vestland
Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...
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 along the
Kvinnheradsfjorden in the western part of the municipality. It is the site of
Ølve Church.
Ølve is located near the border with
Bjørnafjorden municipality, and it is across the water from
Tysnes
Tysnes () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. The administrative centre is the village of Uggdal. Other popul ...
municipality. Ølve is a farming village, but it is also industrial. Today the biggest part of the production is aimed at the food industry, especially salmon processing.
Mining and geology
There have been ten copper mines and two iron mines on the Ølve Peninsula. Mining continued until 1911. The basis for the operation was the rock greenstone. Many of the mines from the more than 300-year-old industry in Norway are associated with greenstone deposits. Ølve goldworks is well known from the years 1855–87, when gold was found at Slagget in Hyttevågen in greenish chlorite shale.
Stone baking slates for making flatbread have been mined and processed at several locations in Ølve and Hatlestrand since around 1100. It is the oldest industry in the area. The slates were used around Norway in large numbers and there is also evidence of exports outside Norway.
On Hamarhaug stone carvings thousands of years old of several ships and a couple of human figures have been discovered. Unfortunately, the main ship carving was cut out and stolen some years ago.
References
Villages in Vestland
Kvinnherad
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