The landscape helps explain why people settled here.

Fertile soil provided the basis for farming. The river provided water. The forests and mountains provided grazing, firewood, game and other resources. Over the centuries came hunting, fishing, iron production, charcoal burning, tar production, summer farms, new farmsteads, a school, a cooperative store and, eventually, new forms of business and tourism.

A valley that explains why Unset is here

Unset lies in a narrow valley east of Fonnåsfjellet. Unsetdalen is around twelve kilometres long and approximately three kilometres wide. The valley floor lies at around 400 metres above sea level, with the Unsetåa winding through it.

Forested slopes rise on both sides of the valley. It is a landscape with clear natural boundaries – and the farms sit in the middle of it.

The fertile areas of the valley were important to early agricultural settlement. The farms of Unset are therefore not located here by accident. The landscape has been part of the settlement's history for centuries.

Roots reaching back to the Iron Age

Unset is an old farming village with roots in the later Iron Age. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage describes Unset as a village with some of the oldest and richest historic buildings in Rendalen, with long continuity in farming practices, building traditions and settlement patterns.

Archaeological finds from the farms include material from the Iron Age and Middle Ages, including a Viking Age silver hoard. The surrounding outfield also contains traces of earlier use, including hunting and trapping systems, iron production, charcoal pits, tar kilns and old riding and transport routes.

Today, Unset village and Unnsetbrenna form part of a landscape identified by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage as a cultural landscape of national interest through the KULA register.

The farms are part of the story

It is not one particular building that makes Unset special. It is the whole landscape.

Farmyards, fields, roads, the Unsetåa, forests and outfield belong to the same system. This is the landscape that the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage highlights as having a long cultural and agricultural continuity.

When you look at the farms today, you are therefore not simply looking at a modern agricultural landscape. You are seeing the result of centuries of people clearing land, building homes, moving livestock, harvesting the forest and using the mountains.

The buildings tell the story

At Unset, the history is not only found in archives. It stands in the farmyards.

The barfrøstue is a distinctive building tradition from Eastern Norway. Several examples remain in Rendalen, and local historical sources connect several of them to Unset and Romenstad.

The buildings tell something that a date alone cannot: how people lived, how the farms functioned and how building traditions developed in a landscape where winter, forests and farming shaped everyday life.

Sigrid Undset has family roots here

Nobel Prize-winning author Sigrid Undset had family roots in Unset, and her surname is connected to the place. It is not the main story of Unset, but it is a fascinating reminder that small places can have connections reaching far beyond their own landscape.

The farm did not end at the farmyard

For the people who lived at Unset, the farm was not simply the fields and buildings around the house. The outfield was part of their livelihood.

The forests and mountains provided resources for food, construction, fuel, grazing and income. The traces are still there: hunting and trapping systems, iron production sites, charcoal pits, tar kilns, summer farms and old routes through the landscape.

When you leave the farms and walk into the surrounding landscape, you are therefore not leaving Unset. You are entering another part of its history.

The river running through the village

The Unsetåa runs through the heart of the landscape. The river is more than a geographical feature. It is one of the structures that connects the different parts of Unset.

The Unsetåa forms part of a protected watercourse, with important values connected to landscape, plants, birds, wildlife, aquatic life, cultural heritage and outdoor recreation.

Today, the river is also a very tangible experience. It holds both trout and grayling and has a dedicated fly-fishing zone.

The store that was more than a store

In 1917, Unset Kooperative Handelslag was established. During its first years, the cooperative operated from an old schoolhouse. A new store building was completed in 1925.

The store became an important part of everyday life in the village. It was about goods, but also about people, meetings and news from the outside world.

In 1968, the premises were converted to self-service. The store finally closed in 2009 after 92 years of operation.

The store disappeared. Unset remained.

Unset and Unnsetbrenna

The KULA landscape identified by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage includes two very different farming communities in the same valley: Unset village to the south and Unnsetbrenna further north.

Unset has roots reaching back to the later Iron Age and represents an old farming culture with long continuity. Unnsetbrenna represents a much newer settlement history, connected to the Norwegian smallholding and land-settlement movement of the twentieth century.

Two histories. One landscape. Together they make Unsetdalen easier to understand.

A landscape that is still being used

It is easy to romanticise old villages. But Unset is not an open-air museum.

People live here. Farms are still used. The landscape is maintained. And new businesses have found ways of using the same resources that have always mattered: farms, horses, mountains, hunting, fishing and history.

Perhaps that is the most interesting part of Unset's story: the landscape is still being used – simply in new ways.

Romenstad – where history becomes an experience

At Romenstad, the connection between farm, outfield and cultural heritage becomes tangible. Visitors can experience historic buildings, accommodation, hunting, fishing, canoeing and local history.

In the cultural heritage park, you can walk among historic hunting and trapping pits and experience a reconstructed trapping system. It offers an insight into how people once used the landscape to secure food and income.

Romenstad has also been awarded Olavsrosa, a Norwegian cultural heritage quality mark for experiences strongly rooted in Norwegian cultural heritage.

From Unset to the mountains

Beyond the farms, the landscape opens up. Fonnåsfjellet is close by, and further into the area lie extensive mountain and outfield landscapes.

Here you find summer farms, mountain lakes, historic routes and cultural heritage sites. Unset is therefore not only a destination in its own right. It is also a natural transition between the agricultural landscape and the mountains.

For anyone wanting to understand the connection between farming, outfield use, summer farming, hunting, fishing and mountain life, this may be the most interesting thing about Unset.

A few places to start

Experiences directly connected to Unset and the surrounding landscape.

Facts about Unset

Place: Unset

Municipality: Rendalen

Village: Yes

Statistical district: 04320207 Unset

Population: 115 people in the statistical district, April 2026

Valley: Unsetdalen

Valley length: approximately 12 km

Valley floor: approximately 400 metres above sea level

River: Unsetåa

Cultural landscape: Unset village and Unnsetbrenna are designated as a cultural landscape of national interest.

The population figure refers to Statistics Norway's statistical district Unset and should not be interpreted as an official geographical boundary for the village itself.

Frequently asked questions about Unset

Unset is only the beginning

Continue into Rendalen – to its villages, stories, experiences and landscapes.

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage: Cultural landscapes of national interest

Innlandet County Municipality: 16 landscapes of national interest in Hedmark

Lokalhistoriewiki: Unset