"Bjørnsontollå"

The Bjørnson pine tree

This old pine tree, or "tollå", in the local dialect, is about 370 years old. Its age is estimated by a sample taken with a drill. Every year a new annual ring is formed in the tree trunk. If you count the rings, it is easy to find the age of the tree. In the photo to the left, you will see the annual rings in a pine trunk.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson grew up at Nesset vicarage, and memories from there have no doubt inspired his writing. May be the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature once rested here in his childhood?

Some people have humorously maintained that his lush hair style could have been inspired by this pine tree.

Pines can get very old, up to 400-500 years, is not unusual. When they die, they excrete resin which protects the wood and counteracts the decomposition. Dead trees can consequently stand for some hundred years or more before they fall.

• 22nd February 1756 the Tjelle avalanche caused a tsunami that was 40 -50 meters high in Langfjorden and Eresfjorden. 32 people died and 168 houses and boathouses were destroyed.