Sparbu: Hikes, Cross-Country Ski Trails and Archaeological Traces

For your trip to Sparbu, you can choose from a range of activities: cross-country skiing, marked hikes and cultural history. The routes vary in difficulty and duration; burial grounds and the Slipsteinberget quarry add archaeological and industrial history to the natural landscape.

Getting there, ski trails and hikes

Sparbu station in Steinkjer is a stop on the Nordland Line. Trains run from there towards Trondheim S, Lerkendal and Steinkjer. If rail travel is part of your journey, check the timetable for your travel dates.

In addition to the trails at the ski stadium, Sparbu has cross-country ski trails through Kringla, Grindberg and Heistad. Grooming conditions vary by season. If you are planning to ski, check the trail conditions for your chosen dates in advance.

The hike from Sparbu to the Marsteinsvola viewpoint summit is of moderate difficulty, 1.8 kilometres long and climbs 204 metres. It takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes each way. The summit is on the border between Verdal, Inderøy and Sparbu. It is one of six marked hikes to viewpoints in Sparbu and is maintained by the local sports club, Sparbu IL.

For an easy alternative, take the hike to Kvitgeita in Sparbu: it is 6.2 kilometres long and takes about 45 minutes. The two hikes differ in difficulty and stated distance; the time given for Marsteinsvola is explicitly one way. Trail conditions can vary by season, so take this into account when planning.

Burial grounds and Slipsteinberget

The Skei site in Sparbu is considered the largest burial ground in Nord-Trøndelag and dates from around 800 AD. Its large, star-shaped burial mounds have arms up to 20 metres long. Another burial site is located at the crossroads in Hovden in Sparbu and contains almost 120 graves.

Slipsteinberget in Sparbu is a soapstone quarry dating from the Viking Age, as well as a cultural heritage site and an industrial site. Today, it is operated as a serpentinite quarry. Soapstone from Slipsteinberget was used as a decorative element in Mære Church and Stiklestad Church. The site thus links local quarrying history with buildings in other named locations.

Culture in the wider Steinkjer destination

The wider Steinkjer destination also offers its own cultural history attractions. Egge Museum is located on Eggevammen, in a landscape shaped by cultural heritage sites and marked by traces of human history throughout the ages. The Iron Age burial ground at Egge comprises 33 burial monuments and stretches over 1.3 kilometres. At the Egge Museum open-air museum, a maid or farmhand tells visitors about the buildings and life on a Trønder farm in the late 19th century. The tractor exhibition features agricultural machinery, particularly tractors, from several historical periods of development.

Mære Church is also part of the cultural history of the wider Steinkjer destination. It is an early medieval Romanesque grey-stone church built on a pre-Christian place of worship. The church preserves a 13th-century crucifix, several 15th-century chairs, and an altarpiece and pulpit from the mid-17th century.

For the overview of the wider destination: Steinkjer.