Grue
Municipality · Innlandet
About Grue
Svullrya's Forest Finn Museum, the preserved Finn croft at Hytjanstorpet, and Grue church, rebuilt after Norway's worst church fire in 1822.
What to do and where to stay in Grue
Places to stay are run locally, with no hotel or campsite chain behind them.
1Norsk Skogfinsk Museum, SvullryaHistory & culture
The national museum of the Forest Finns, who settled these woods from the early 1600s, in a new timber building opened by Queen Sonja in October 2025, with exhibitions, shop and café.
Storbergsvegen 5, Svullrya, Grue Finnskog · 1.5–2 h · all year
2FinnetunetHistory & culture
An open-air museum of 13 buildings that shows a Forest Finn farm, and one of few places in Scandinavia with all three smoke-oven buildings: smoke cabin, smoke sauna and drying house.
Svullrya, next to the museum · 45–60 min · all year (grounds)
3Grue church and the 1822 fireHistory & culture
A white stone church from 1828, among Norway's first Gothic Revival buildings, that replaced the wooden church where at least 113 people died in a fire at Pentecost 1822.
Kirkenær centre · 20–40 min · all year
4HytjanstorpetHistory & culture
A protected Forest Finn croft north of Svullrya with eight old buildings and its fields, still lived in; the 10-torpsrunden trail from Sollien leads to it.
Grue Finnskog, north of Svullrya (path from Sollien) · 30 min · May–October
5Skasberget via FinnevegenHike
A 508 m summit with a check-in post at Merkesteinen, reached on the blue-marked Finnevegen, the 25 km old path between Svullrya and Kirkenær.
Between Skasenden and Svullrya · 3 h (8 km return from Skasenden) or 4 h (12 km return from Svullrya) · May–October
6RøgdenSwim
A 15 km² border lake between Svullrya and Sweden, with a small part in Sweden and water draining towards Lake Vänern; swim here in summer.
East of Svullrya, Fv201 towards the border · 1–2 h · summer
7GruetunetHistory & culture
Kirkenær's open-air museum of 25 buildings from the Solør farms, plus a section kept from the 1960s, when the site was a popular party and dance venue.
Kirkenær · 45–60 min · summer; tours by arrangement
8Grue Finnskog churchHistory & culture
An 1886 neo-Gothic wooden church in Svullrya whose nave collapsed under snow in January 1948 and was rebuilt in 1950.
Svullrya · 15 min · all year (outside)
9Bygdevegen from Tjura to SkasdammenHike
An old village road through forest, about 13 km one way, past abandoned crofts and the Gjeldsåa, a canal dug in the 1930s by people working off tax debts.
From Tjura to Nordre Skasdammen at the south end of Skasen · 5.5 h one way (12.6 km, 310 m climb) · April–October
10Gardsjøen nature reserveNature
The largest of the Glomma's cut-off river bends, a 3 km oxbow lake 2 km south of Kirkenær, protected since 1981; about 65 wetland bird species have been seen here.
South of Kirkenær · 30 min · spring–autumn