Ørland is a municipality in the county of Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. Ca 5,100 inhabitants. Our mayor is Hallgeir Grøntvedt, representing Senterpartiet (the Centre Party).
The main industies of the region include agriculture, public service, and commerce. The main employers are are Ørland Main Air Station of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (www), the Tine white cheese dairy (www) and the Mascot Høie bedclothes factory (www).
The landscape is flat and wide open. The acres have been cultivated with love and pride for more than a thousand years.
Brekstad is now listed as a town. It has ca 2000 inhabitants, and is the major commercial centre for the Fosen region. Uthaug and Opphaug are the largest villages in Ørland. The islands Storfosna and Kråkvåg are populated, and can be reached by car ferry from Garten.
Major attractions are the four Ramsar Convention Bird Protection areas, the coastal areas themselves, the Manor of Austrått, dated 1656 and with a known history from around 1000 AD, and the single, large Sessile oak (the northernmost in the world, known as Austråtteika) in the nearby forest called Austråttlunden. The WW2 coastal fortress Fort Austrått is a triple gun turret, taken from the deutsche kriegsmarine vessel Gneisenau. Other museums include Uthaugsgården, a well preserved ancient farm who was also a site for trade and communication; and Tinden, a small scale farm place equally well preserved as it was when in use. Our stone church, Ørland kirke, dates from the 11th century.
Living in Ørland?
Every year 200-300 people move to Ørland, every year some of them coming from foreign countries. Are you one of them? We hope you will learn to enjoy our small town and rural community. We can offer you and your family a variety of public services, including doctor, children's health care and midwife, health care for senior citizens, social welfare and education.
Ørland has five kindergartens, One of them, Futura barnehage, is a landmark both for its size and its variety in facilities. We have two public elementary schools (Hårberg skole and Opphaug skole) and a Waldorf school: Steinerskolen i Fosen (www). Our junior secondary school is Ørland ungdomsskole, which serves pupils from the whole municipality. A new school is being built, and will be ready in august 2009. Fosen videregående skole is «our» upper secondary school; situated in Botngård, Bjugn municipality, 14 km from Brekstad (www).
We take great pride in the quality of our health services, both basic services, and the innovativeness that makes Fosen distriktsmedisinske senter a national landmark.
In need of a house? Most employers assist their new employees in how to aquire a first house when you move to Ørland. The municipality has no obligations in this matter, but we may give you useful advice about where to advertise, whom to call etc. Contact us.
Do you play golf? Tennis? Old boys soccer? Cornet? Or would you rather join a choir? We can offer you a wide range of leirsure activities.
Visiting Ørland?
How to travel to Ørland? By airplane directly from Oslo (www) or via Trondheim Airport (www). Travelling from Trondheim (or Kristiansund) you can go by express boat (www hours / www background); or by car, using one of the two car ferries (www Brekstad-Valset / Flakk-Rørvik). The journey takes 50 minutes by the express boat, and ca 2 hours by car and ferry. When driving in your own car from the southeast of Norway, leave route E6 at Berkåk, and follow route 700 until Orkanger, then route 710 until the ferry at Valset.
Where to stay? Ørland Kysthotell (www) provides good service both for familie, business and conferences. There are several coastal cabins («rorbu») for hire generally on a weekly basis, advance booking is recommended during the season from april to september. These are Garten Sjøhus; Rønsholmen brygger; Beian brygge and Fjord Fishing. The camping place Austrått Camping (www) lies near the manor and the shore.
What to do? Meet the people, the landscape, the ocean, the fish and the birds, the arts, the history. Play golf, go fishing, bicycle riding or use Ørland as your base and gateway to the Ocean, or to the mountain wilderness in nearby areas in Fosen or Trollheimen.
This is only a brief introduction. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!
We regret that several of the www-links only are in norwegian, we hope that they still might give you some information in pictures or time tables.