Where to stay in Os
Beds are few in Os. What rooms there are gather in the village centre near Os kirke, where a guesthouse or roadside room sits within reach of the church and the local shops, the practical base for anyone passing through this upland corner of Innlandet. The centre is the obvious choice.
Out across the wider municipality, farm rooms and mountain cabins spread among the high farms and forest near Dalsbygda kirke, a quieter footing for travellers touring the uplands by car. Stock thins fast in the hills. Many visitors who want a fuller choice of hotels base themselves in a larger town of Innlandet and reach Os on a day's drive up the valley.
Book ahead in the warm months, when the long northern daylight draws walkers and anglers to this high part of south-eastern Norway.
About Os
What is Os known for?
Os is high country. The municipality lies in the north-eastern part of Innlandet, an upland district of farms and forest near the head of the inland valleys, with Os kirke marking the heart of the village. The mountains rise close behind.
Dalsbygda kirke serves another corner of the parish among the high farms, the two churches and the open uplands together giving this far stretch of the Østlandet region its place in south-eastern Norway.
What are the main landmarks in Os?
Os kirke is the landmark of the village. The church stands at the heart of the settlement and gives the upland community its fixed point, the building most closely tied to the centre of Os. Other sights lie scattered about.
Dalsbygda kirke serves another part of the parish among the high farms, while the open mountains and forest of the district carry the appeal that draws visitors to the area. Upland farmland frames them all in this far corner of Innlandet.
What is the history of Os?
Os grew as an upland farm and forest settlement near the head of the inland valleys. People here worked the high clearings and the mountain pastures, gathering around Os kirke as the church and the centre of the scattered parish, while Dalsbygda kirke served another corner of the district among the high farms. Field and forest shaped the place.
The community lived by farming, forestry and the work of the open uplands rather than by trade in this far reach of the Østlandet region. The pattern held into modern times. Os became a municipality of Innlandet, the administrative unit covering the spread of high farms, forest and mountain in the north-eastern part of the county, and the church kept its place at the centre through every change of boundary.
Os kirke and Dalsbygda kirke stayed the fixed points of the parish, and the village kept the look of an upland community that grew slowly from the land of south-eastern Norway rather than rising on any single founding event.
Where is Os?
Os lies in the north-eastern part of Innlandet, in south-eastern Norway. The municipality is upland country near the head of the inland valleys, a spread of high farms, forest and mountain around the village and Os kirke, with the open hills rising on every side. The uplands frame the whole place.
Dalsbygda kirke stands in another corner of the district, while the rest of Os carries the high pastures, woods and scattered farms that give this far part of Innlandet its mountain, inland character above the lower valleys.
What is the climate of Os?
Os has a cold, dry upland climate near the head of the inland valleys. Winters run long and hard, with deep frost and lasting snow lying over the high farms and forest around Os kirke through much of the season, far from any softening coast. Summers are short and cool.
The high inland position in northern Innlandet gives the district some of the sharpest seasonal swings of south-eastern Norway, while the long northern daylight of the warm months opens the uplands to walkers and anglers.
How do you get to Os?
Most travellers reach Os by road. The municipality sits high in the north-eastern country of Innlandet, reached on the valley roads that climb toward the head of the inland dales, with Os kirke and the village centre a short way off the main route. A car is the practical way in.
The wider region of Innlandet carries the rail and air links that serve the larger towns, from which the roads climb out to this upland parish in south-eastern Norway for the last stretch of the journey.