Jæren – The Vistnes hike

This is about the Vistnes hike, one of many hikes on the coast of Jæren, Norway. The hike is 6.4 km one way on varied ground. 

Orientation

Bø – Vistnes (Randaberg): This is a varied and wonderful hike, at times not very easy jumping from rock to rock. Large boulders, heathers and grassland, a WW2 fort, old boathouses, picturesque farms and cottages. This hike has it all. At Vistnes the conservation area stops for some kilometres, only to be resumed at Kolnes.

We are almost at the northern end of Jæren at a place with no public transportation. Finding a place to park your car at the north end, near the farms of Bø, may not be easy. We decided to park at Vistnestunet (described in this article) and walk north to Bø (6.4 km). In contrast to many of the hikes on Jæren, the return was a delight. We only used one car this time and returned to Vistnestunet by following the roads and cycle route not very far from the seashore. This offered a quite different but very fascinating route of 4 km.

This article presents one of many hikes on the coast of Jæren, Norway. Get an overview and browse the rest here. Check out the map details on this link.

What to see

It was a very warm and lovely day in mid-May and I will more or less let the pictures speak for themselves.

Not far from the bay of Molviga we find the Bronze Age burial mound Grøderøysa, dating back to around the year 55 AD. Its size (46 metres long, 15 m wide and 2.2 m high) makes it the largest in the county of Rogaland and indeed among the largest in Norway. It is said to be the mound of King Grøde and took 1,100 man-days to make.

Here at Bø the Germans took great effort during WW2 to secure the ship lane into Stavanger. A fort with a large command bunker (below) and various gun positions, trenches and so on were built. Mostly by Russian POWs. This bunker was camouflaged as a farm building.

Børaunen is a spectacular place, and deserves a separate visit. Although we felt tempted to have a closer look than this zoomed in photograph we decided otherwise.

The walk back to Vistnestunet was really nice. It offered a different perspective of the route we followed earlier in the day. Although it followed the road for most of the time, there was very little traffic.

Video from this hike

Further reading

This article presents one of many hikes on the coast of Jæren, Norway. Get an overview here. The hikes and corresponding articles are sorted in a north to south order. The adjacent hikes are:

North: Sandestranda – Børaunen (Randaberg): The bay and beach at Sande makes a fine starting point for a walk on the sandy beach, on grass paths, pebbles and boulders out to a headland with two distinct cairns. (2.5 km)

South: Vistnes – Vistestranda (Randaberg): This hike from the popular sandy beach of Viste will take you on an easy trail to a Stone Age cave and a 19th century farm. (3.7 km)

Valuable reading in Norwegian from the municipality of Randaberg about walks and cultural assets. “Langs kysten i Randaberg” is an information folder in Norwegian from the municipality. It is available in pdf-format.

Oskar Sørreime (1919-2007) – Unknown title (Source: Haugesund Billedgalleri)

Read more in my special article about Jæren’s geology, flora, fauna, history, people and art: Jæren – The coastline explained.

Les om strandturene på Jæren på “Sandalsand Norge”