About

Stampehølen has its name from the frieze pestle in Votndalen. The pestle was built between 1860 - 1880 by Ole Larsson Holestøl. The village people had a place where they could make their wool into frieze, but also a place where they could wash their clothes and sharpen the scythe.

The pestle itself was in operation until the early 1900s, but then the textile industry took over and the pestle decayed and later collapsed.

Several local activists together with Ål municipality and the Employment office restored the frieze pestle in 1992-93, and you can now see the pestle, the pestle house, the drains and the water wheel.