“…though I must honestly admit that I cannot recall having seen a more interesting sight than what one beholds when passing this road and looking over the beautiful so-called Tykkebøigden, the magnificent mountain with their variations…”
Thus wrote Mathias Wilhelm Eckhoff in his diary in 1826, when he travelled via Voss together with J.C.DAHL (the painter). The same view over Tjukkebygda meets us today, a fertile valley slope with farms in two rows below Storåsen. The farms’ names indicate early settlements. In the middle of the rural community lies BØ, the oldest farm, and around Bø we find the farms with the second oldest names, which had the ending –vin (grassy field, grazing land) in the old Norse language; Helleve, Melve, Endeve, Hylle, Ygre and Tøn. On most of the farms there have been finds from antiquity.