Gulen^ⓘ is a municipality in the western part of Vestland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Eivindvik. Other villages in Gulen include Brekke, Byrknes, Dalsøyra, Dingja, Instefjord, Mjømna, Rutledal, and Ytre Oppedal.

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Gulen Municipality Gulen kommune
Municipality
Evindvig herred  (historic name)
View of Eivindvik (photo: Bjarne Thune)
Flag Coat of arms
Vestland within Norway
Gulen within Vestland
Coordinates: 61°01′27″N 05°07′10″E
Country	Norway
County	Vestland
District	Sogn
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Eivindvik
Government
• Mayor (2023)	May-Lynn Osland (Ap)
Area
• Total	599.42 km2 (231.44 sq mi)
• Land	577.11 km2 (222.82 sq mi)
• Water	22.31 km2 (8.61 sq mi)  3.7%
• Rank	#190 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	2,228
• Rank	#265 in Norway
• Density	3.9/km2 (10/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−3.3%
Demonym	Guling[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4635[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

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The municipality of Gulen sits to the south of the Sognefjorden and it surrounds the Gulafjorden, which is considered to be the place where Norway's west-coastal Vikings met for the Gulating, a governing body. The area along the Gulafjorden called Flolid (just east of the village of Eivindvik) is now a national historic place, where an open-air theater and annual summer play commemorates the Vikings who gathered there 1000 years ago to accept Christianity.

The 599-square-kilometre (231 sq mi) municipality is the 190th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Gulen is the 265th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,228. The municipality's population density is 3.9 inhabitants per square kilometre (10/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 3.3% over the previous 10-year period.^[4][5]

In 2016, the chief of police for Vestlandet formally suggested a reconfiguration of police districts and stations. He proposed that the police station in Gulen be closed.^[6]

Evindvig was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The municipality of 1838 was created to be identical to the Evindvig parish (prestegjeld) that included the three sub-parishes (sokn) of Evindvig, Brekke, and Husøy. The sub-parish of Brekke (population: 898) was separated from the municipality in 1850 to form a municipality of its own, leaving a total of 3,944 residents in Evindvig. (Later, Brekke was merged with Lavik as the municipality of Lavik og Brekke. This was short-lived and Brekke later became a separate municipality once again.) In 1858, the sub-parish of Husøy (population: 1,384) was separated from Evindvig to form its own municipality called Utvær (renamed Solund in 1923). This left Evindvig with 3,018 inhabitants. On 1 July 1890, the name of Evindvig municipality was officially changed to Gulen.^[7]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Brekke (population: 782) was merged (back) with Gulen. Also on that same date, the island of Losna (population: 40) was transferred from Gulen to the neighboring municipality of Solund. After these changes, Gulen had a population of 3,250.^[7][8]

On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly created Vestland county after Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland counties were merged.

Gulen Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[14] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sogn og Fjordane District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Gulen has an area of about 600 square kilometres (230 sq mi) including about 1500 small islands, islets, and skerries. The largest of the islands are Byrknesøyna, Hiserøyna, Mjømna, and Sandøyna.^[36] The mainland is characterized by small valleys and large mountains crossing the landscape. The lake Dingevatn is one of Norway's deepest lakes.

Gulen is bounded on the north by the Sognefjorden and the Sognesjøen, and to the south by the Fensfjorden with the North Sea to the west of the municipality. Gulen is bordered by the municipalities of Solund and Hyllestad to the north (across the Sognefjorden), by Høyanger to the east, and by Austrheim (across the Fensfjorden), Lindås, and Masfjorden to the south.

The area is a geological region that contains a relatively low nutrition content ground, which characterizes the types of flora. The moors, which are frequently covered with wild purple heather, are the dominating picture of the area. Due to the large quantity of rain in the area, there are many types of moss and lichen in Gulen.^[37] Most of the land in Gulen is very mountainous and inhospitable.

Gulen has a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification), also known as a marine west coast climate. Gulen is among the wettest areas of Norway, with almost 3,000 millimetres (120 in) of annual precipitaiton, and on average 202 days annually with precipitation, mostly as rain. Wettest season is autumn and winter, and December the wettest month. The average date for the last overnight freeze (low below 0 °C (32.0 °F)) in spring is 19 April^[38] and average date for first freeze in autumn is 31 October^[39] giving a frost-free season of 194 days (1981-2010 average). The Takle weather station started recording in June 1950.

Historically, Gulen's economy has been centered around farming and fishing. More recently, Gulen has become important because of its close proximity to the Mongstad industrial area which includes many oil refineries operated by Statoil, Shell Oil, and other oil companies. Other factories and industries in Gulen include Wergeland-Halsvik, Baker Oil Tools, Johnny Birkeland Transport, and Vest Tank. There are many other small businesses located in Gulen today.

• Ole Elias Holck (1774 in Hyllestad – 1842), a Norwegian military officer and representative at the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly
• Peder Furubotn (1890 in Brekke – 1975), a Norwegian cabinetmaker, politician, and resistance member
• Fredrik Lange-Nielsen (1891 in Eivindvik – 1980), a mathematician and insurance company manager