About us
- History

SOME OF OUR HISTORY AT MELKEVOLL BRETUN

Melkevoll Bretun Camping is part of the Melkevoll farm. This farm is on the size of 8km2, where 2/3 are located in the Jostedal Glacier National Park. The familiy on this land have a history 400 years in a direct line, so the children of Johanne & Frank Melkevoll who run Melkevoll Bretun now, are the 16th generation on this land.
When you visit us here, you are also stepping in to a private own land and area, with deep roots and traditions.

The valley Oldedalen, and on Melkevoll we have long tradition to welcome travellers and tourists.
Early on Johanna & Anders Melkevoll invited mountaineers for dinner and overnight after crossing the Jostedal glacier. In 1971 they founded Melkevoll camping at the inner end of the Oldedalen valley. Johanna and Anders were in charge of the Melkevoll farm at this time. In addition to the farmwork with goats, sheep and other animals, as well as horse and carrige driving to the Briksdal glacier, they built the three small cabins and founded the campsite.
We still have guests who remember Johanna & Anders and the cosy small place Melkevoll camping was at this time.

Later their son, Inge Melkevoll, took over the Melkevoll farm in 1987. He and his wife Gro Melkevoll did several work and expanded the campsite to what Melkevoll Bretun is today. An important intention with this work was to build everything in harmony with nature. It is a tremendous work behind everything that we now can enjoy around us:

In 1990 the big cabins 1, 2 and 3 was built.
In 1995 the reception building was built. The cafè area as added to this building in 2000.
In 2000 the old - style barn house “Utelada”, with kitchen and fireplace was built.
In 2001 the Stone Cave was created
In 2010 cabin 4 was built
In 2011 the trail “Inforama” with the viewpoint was created
In 2018 the Blue Mountain Hall was built.

The bouldering area was created by glaciersguides and climbers who had their base at Melkevoll Bretun in late -90s and early 2000. At this time we also could offer glacier guiding, - this had it´s end at the same time as the horses was no longer in Briksdal 2003.

Right before the next generation took over running Melkevoll Bretun in 2020, the Blue Mountain Hall was built by Inge Melkevoll and the two brothers Wasilewski from Poland. This is a special hall built on two huge stones over the campsite.
This nature hall is used to various gatherings as well as courses held by Johanne & Frank Bjennmyr Melkevoll.
We now have the honor to bring this family own campsite into the future, and we are now the 15th generation on this land.

We hope you will have good experiences, and take care of the ground and the nature here when you are visiting us here!

WARM WELCOME !

Johanne & Frank Bjennmyr Melkevoll