Shore excursion · Skjolden Explore

Urnes Stave Church & Ornes

Norway's oldest stave church, the boatbuilders beside it, and the ferry home across the fjord.

Urnes & the Ornes shipyard · 5 hours

Duration: 5 hours
Guests: 10–34 a departure
Season: 2 May – 30 September
Tour code: SKJ-URN

The coach follows the east shore of the Lustrafjord to Urnes, where a stave church has stood since about 1130 — the oldest in Norway, and on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1979. Its north portal carries the carving that gave a whole style of Viking art its name.

The group divides: half go inside the church with a guide while the other half watch boats being built by hand at the Ornes shipyard, then the halves swap. The ferry from Ornes carries you, coach and all, across to Solvorn, and the road home runs up the west shore. Five hours, and both sides of the fjord.

Inside Urnes stave church, c. 1130
The Urnes animal carving on the north portal
Boatbuilding by hand at the Ornes shipyard
Across the fjord on the Ornes–Solvorn ferry

The day, hour by hour

Five hours, gangway to gangway

00:00 – 01:00 Depart the cruise pier by coach along the east shore of the Lustrafjord towards Urnes
01:00 – 01:10 At Urnes the group divides — one half to the stave church, the other to the Ornes shipyard
01:10 – 01:30 Groups 1 · 2Guided visit in the stave church (20 min) · guided visit at the Ornes shipyard (30 min)
01:30 – 02:10 The halves change over between church and shipyard
02:10 – 02:30 Groups 1 · 2Guided visit at the Ornes shipyard (20 min) · guided visit in the stave church (20 min)
02:30 – 03:00 Both groups collected and brought to the Ornes ferry quay
03:00 – 04:00 The Ornes–Solvorn ferry, coach aboard, for the twenty-minute crossing of the Lustrafjord
04:00 – 05:00 Along the west shore from Solvorn back to Skjolden and the cruise pier

00:00 is the moment the group leaves the pier — not a clock time.