Borgund - Vindhella - Sverrestigen
Round trip from Borgund Stave Church
The King's Road over Filefjell was opened in 1793. At Tyin Filefjell you live in the middle of the countryside with easy access to several of the finest sections of the road.
At Borgund Stave Church, Vindhellavegen, the most spectacular stretch of the Kongevegen over Filefjell, starts. The road goes through Vindhellaskaret and winds in beautiful curves on high walls steeply down to Husum. The road is a prime example of the efforts that were made to create a road between Bergen and Oslo before the time of dynamite. Horses and carts were the means of transport when the road was built in 1842-43.
The road has a grass surface, and it is not a long walk from Borgund Stave Church, which is one of Norway's best preserved stave churches and is also worth a visit.
If you stay with us and book one of our Kongeveg packages, transportation to and from the starting point of the tour is included.
The hike along Vindhellavegen starts from the parking lot at the Borgund Stave Church Visitor Center, and goes past the entrance to the stave church and uphill into the forest.
First a short stretch on a path before you reach the historic King's Road. The King's Road has a grassy and even surface. The road rises gently to the top of Vindhellaskaret (about 500 meters) and drops gently outward for a couple of hundred meters, until it becomes dramatically steeper, and the road continues in beautiful bends on up to 15 meter high walls down towards Husum.
Instead of going back the same way, you follow the Sverrestigen path from Husmum back to Borgund. It goes in an arc southwards. History tells us that King Sverre used this path in 1777 when he wanted to bypass the farmers who had entrenched themselves in Vindhella to throw boulders at the heads of himself and his people to kill them.
Map and more details
The map and tour description show the trip over Vindhella and Sverrestigen from Borgund Stave Church. The tour can be combined with a visit to the stave church center.