Selbjørn is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Austevoll Austevoll is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality and an archipelago in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Midthordland in Western Norway. The administrative centre ...

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 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 Se ...

). 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 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 a ...

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. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

. The neighboring island of

Stolmen Stolmen is an island in Austevoll municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies in a large archipelago just north of the Selbjørnsfjorden. The island of Selbjørn lies to the east, the islands of Huftarøy and Hundvåko lie to th ...

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, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

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, most ...

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 municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since i ...

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