Round trip along the mines in Litlabø

Litlabø

Stord - Fitjar 1:50.000.

The Mining Museum, Litlabø. Roundtrip. The hike starts by the shaft tower.

By the shaft tower there is a large parking lot. Busses can also park here.

Information board at the starting point, directional arrows. Marked and graded after the new national standard. Signs in all crosspaths. The friend union for the mines has also marked various hikes with own colors on poles.

Green. Easy hike.

39 – 100 m. above sea level

1 hour (2,5 km)

Some steep parts. Use proper shoes.

You can easily combine this forest hike with longer hikes towards the mountains of Stord. From the crosspaths west of the river Stordalselva, follow the tractor road towards Dalskarvatnet. From here there are various alternatives to longer hikes into the mountains on Stord.

The roundtrip starts at the shaft tower and follow the footpath up the brooklet in Eikebakken. In the dark spruce forest you pass several mining shafts, and in Sadalen, a wet and fertile valley on the right side of the path, there are kilometers of shafts. After 700 m, there is a directional signboard towards "Storsynken" (The Large Shaft) at Høgåsen. This is a 160 m long example of surface mining, and the trees inside the fence have been cut down to make this impressive man-made gap visible to everybody. The main path then turns right past the remnants of some outhouses in a rough grazing area owned by the farms at Dale.

The next crossing is in Stordalen, and when you turn left, south along the the river/Dalsløkjen, you arrive at an idyllic picnic area with fishing possibilities for children. From Dalsløkjen a tractor road takes you towards the Big Dam/Jappaløkjen. At Jappaløkjen there is an information signboard. The drinking water from the mountains was gathered here, and it was also processing water for the cleansing mill. Several lakes in the Litlabø mountains were also dammed in 1914 – 1915 to store water for mining.

From Jappaløkjen you walk across Rødkleiv sports ground and along the tractor road. The river on your right is called Kiselva (The ore river), and the brownish colour is due to much iron ore in the ground. When you go down Rødkleivbakken, you see the starting point, the white shaft tower.

The path leads back by a beautiful picnic area by the river Stordalselva.