Ytste Skotet

Ytste Skotet, Storfjorden

Ytste Skotet is a complete, preserved, historical farm located in Stordal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The historic farmyard and museum is located on the steep shores of the Storfjorden in the Sunnmøre district of the county. The farm is located across the fjord from the village of Dyrkorn. The Storfjordens Venner association 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 (pronounced Skøt-e where "ø" sounds like the "u" in "curling" and the "e" like the "o" in fjord) 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 Storfjorden. The fishing in the fjord was an important contribution to the farm household economy. The mountain dairy farm (or støl) 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 and oats 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

The barn at Ytste Skotet. The frame construction may look somewhat similar to the Bronze Age post barn, but is a different and much more modern construction. The frames are put together on the ground and erected on the spot.

The place is mentioned in Middle Ages sources such as the Flateyarbok, Formannsogur, and Heimskringla. Tradition as documented in the sagas tells that there was a farm by this name at this location in the days of King Håkon the Good (i.e., the 10th century). After the serious depopulation of the region resulting from the Black Death 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 (3.0 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.[1]

Access

References

  1. ↑ "Ytste Skotet" (in Norwegian). Stiftinga Sunnmøres Museum. Retrieved 2010-10-16.
  2. ↑ "Ytste Skotet". Retrieved 2010-10-16.
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Coordinates: 62°24′51″N 6°53′38″E / 62.4142°N 6.8938°E / 62.4142; 6.8938

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