Valestrandfossen


Valestrandfossen or Valestrandsfossen is a village in Osterøy municipality, Vestland county, Norway. The village sits along the Sørfjorden on the western coast of the island of Osterøy, about west of the municipal centre of Lonevåg and about south of the village of Hamre where Hamre Church is located. Valestrandfossen has shops, a gas station, primary school, hairdressers, pubs, and Lerøy Fossen AS, the world's largest trout smokehouse.
Valestrandfossen is the largest settlement on the whole island of Osterøy. The village has a population of 1,303 and a population density of. Located by the Sørfjorden, it has a regular ferry that crosses the fjord to Åsane in Bergen.
The famous Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull had his summer house here. In 1858, he bought a farm in Valestrand. The house was designed during 1865 by his youngest brother, architect Georg Andreas Bull. Ole Bull lived there for a time principally between tours. In 1872, he bought property on the island of Lysøen in what is now Bjørnafjorden Municipality, south of Bergen which became the primary residence of his family.