Slottsfjell in Tønsberg

Tønsberg is the oldest city in Norway and in the 1200s and 1300s the king's residence was a castle on the highest point in the city, Slottsfjellet. there are ruins of the castle, a church and the surrounding wall on the hilltop but the main feature now is a tower that was built much later in the 1800s

there is a commanding view of the city and fjord from the park and certainly an even better view from the tower but it was closed when we were there.

much of the steep hillside is maintained as cultural landscape by grazing gammalnorsk spælsau on the premises. this is race of sheep is very close to the original sheep in ancient northern Europe and is well adapted to Norwegian conditions

the sheep were on break and enjoying the nice day when we were there but they have a lot of grazing to do in this grass so i'm sure they will be back to work soon

the coarse wool is well suited for traditional Norwegian handicrafts with a greater variety of colors than more modern races

unlike most modern races, both rams and ewes have horns, which are typically quite curved.