Viking Village Tour: Hidden Gems of Haugesund Revealed

Embark on a Viking Village excursion in Haugesund! Visit the Viking Farm and Viking Museum at Avaldsnes on this unforgettable cruise excursion. Learn about King Harald Fair Hair and why he chose this place for his royal palace. Getting to the Viking Farm is about a 20 min coach ride from the cruise port, through the city and across the Karmenstadt straight onto the island of Karmoy Coaches park up outside the beautiful St Olavs church and this church is really worth your time to explore and experience and well come back here later in this video Your guide will likely lead you down and into a subterranean building which houses the Viking museum. This museum is excellent and not only contains archeological finds relating to Viking life but provides a fascinating history of the people that are often mistakenly referred to as vikings. The local people of this area carved out a harsh and brutal existence and the museum brings this reality to life. But of course the museum also tells the story of the legendary king Harold Fairhair and how he unified the peoples of this area to form Norway, named after the passageway for ships between the island of Karmoy and the mainland …known as the “Way North” or North Way. King Harold established his royal seat here and the remains of his palace and that used but later kings of Norway can still be seen outside of St Olaf’s church. Eric Bloodaxe, Olaf Tryggvason and St Olaf himself all ruled from here. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the museum to the Viking Farm and Village. It’s located on a small forested island. The farm is open during the summer months and is a brilliant example of experimental archeology. The reconstructed buildings include a Viking long house and a boat shed. Re enactors help bring the stories of the local peoples to life. The buildings are wonderful to explore and it’s also a beautiful spot. There are walking trails on this island to explore also and you can wonder the woodland absorbing the stories you’ve heard including how King Olaf tryggason drowned sorcerers and wizards off the shores of the island who challenged his determination to convert this area to Christianity And in this vain do ensure you leave enough time to learn about St Olaf and visit the fabulous church close to the car park. This beautiful church with its elegant stone bell tower dates from 1250 when it was connected to the Fortified Royal palace whose ruins you can see immediately outside. Still a working church this church was built on a former pagan site which featured 5 large menhirs or standing stones. Only one of these stones remains and is immediately to the North of the church. Known as Mary’s needle local legend states that should the stone ever touch the walls of the church then the world will end. Standing at 7.2m this standing stone was once higher and over the years local priests have chipped away at the stones tip to prevent the prophecy from coming true. Some say this still happens and the top of the stone is now less than 10cm from the church wall ….. The imposition of a Christian church on a pagan site of worship is of course not uncommon but this church really brings this religious struggle into relief .. the bricked up pilgrims entrance lies on the north side of the church so pilgrims would have to turn their back on the North, symbolic of rejecting the northern pagan beliefs. It’s is a beautiful building and we were lucky enough for one of the local reenactors to demonstrate it’s beautiful acoustics by singing a local song … gorgeous A wholly enjoyable trip to one of the most important sites in Norways history…And Haugesund is a cruise port with plenty to offer the eager explorer. #iona #haugesund #vikings #cruiseexcursion #avaldsnes #norwaycruise Please subscribe to see more content like this - https://youtube.com/@CooksExplore?sub_confirmation=1