Kirkeøy is the largest island in the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Hvaler Hvaler is a municipality that is a group of islands in the southern part of Viken County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Skjærhalden, on the island of Kirkeøy. The only police station in the municipali ...

. Its name means "church island" and is derived from Hvaler Church which is on the island and is also the main church of the municipality. The island covers an area of and had a population of 1345 inhabitants as of 2017.Kirkeøy
''

Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' ( no, Store Norske Leksikon, abbreviated ''SNL''), is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian published sites, with more than two million unique vis ...

'', retrieved 14 June, 2017 Like the other Hvaler islands, Kirkeøy's

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

is marked by

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

s, several

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

s, and

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These for ...

dominated by

Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

and

silver birch ''Betula pendula'', commonly known as silver birch, warty birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to Europe and parts of Asia, though in southern Europe, it is only found a ...

. At the southern end of the island lies the village of

Skjærhalden Skjærhalden is the administrative centre of Hvaler municipality, Norway. It is located on the island Kirkeøy Kirkeøy is the largest island in the Norwegian municipality of Hvaler. Its name means "church island" and is derived from Hvaler Church ...

, which is also the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the municipality. There are several holiday cottages on the island, which is a popular destination for tourists in the summer. The island is connected with the mainland through a long tunnel to

Asmaløy Asmaløy is an island in Hvaler municipality of Viken county, Norway. Asmaløy is one of the larger islands in the archipelago of Hvaler which consists of over 800 islands, islets, skerries and reefs located in the outer Oslofjord. Hvaler tunnel ...

. From Asmaløy there are bridges to

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

. Hvaler Church (''Hvaler Kirke'') is a medieval era church, probably begun about 1000–1100; it is the main church of the archipelago. It is a stone church with a rectangular nave and narrow choir and apse. The pulpit is from the 1600s. In 1750 the church received a new altar, which in 1759 was supplemented with an altarpiece mounted on the altar. Between 1953 and 1955 the church went through a thorough restoration led by antiquarian

Håkon Christie Håkon Andreas Christie (30 August 1922 – 14 December 2010) was a Norway, Norwegian architectural historian, antiquarian and author. Together with his wife, Sigrid Marie Christie (18 April 1923 - 16 May 2004) he worked from 1950 on the history ...

in connection with the church's restoration. The J. H. Jorgensen organ is from 1955.

References

Hvaler Islands of Viken (county) {{Viken-geo-stub