Ytste Skotet
Encyclopedia
Stordal
Stordal is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stordal. The historic farm of Ytste Skotet lies along the Storfjord in the western part of the municipality.-General information:Stordal...
in Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal
is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...
county, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It is a complete, preserved historic farmyard and museum at Skotet on steep shores of the Storfjord
Storfjord (fjord)
The Storfjord is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region, stretching from Hareid in the west to Tafjord and Geiranger east in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The Storfjord system includes the famous Geirangerfjord and Tafjorden, at small village of Stranda it branches off into...
in Sunnmøre
Sunnmøre
Sunnmøre is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities of Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Norddal, Sande, Skodje, Haram, Stordal, Stranda, Sula, Sykkylven, Ulstein, Vanylven, Volda, Ørskog,...
. The farm is located across the fjord from Dyrkorn. Storfjordens Venner 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 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 StorfjordStorfjord (fjord)
The Storfjord is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region, stretching from Hareid in the west to Tafjord and Geiranger east in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The Storfjord system includes the famous Geirangerfjord and Tafjorden, at small village of Stranda it branches off into...
. The fishing in the fjord was an important contribution to the farm household economy. The mountain dairy farm (or støl
Transhumance
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...
) 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
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
and oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
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
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
sources such as the Flateyarbok, Formannsogur, and Heimskringla
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 Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
. Tradition as documented in the saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s tells that there was a farm by this name at this location in the days of King Håkon the Good
Haakon I of Norway
Haakon I , , given the byname the Good, was the third king of Norway and the youngest son of Harald Fairhair and Thora Mosterstang.-Early life:...
(i.e., the 10th century). After the serious depopulation of the region resulting from the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
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 until 1989 when the property, comprising 750 acres (3 km²), 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 (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 SykkylvenSykkylvenSykkylven is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Aure. Other villages include Ikornnes, Straumgjerde, and Tusvik.-General information:...
.