Nøtterøy is the largest

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The island is mostly located in Færder Municipality, but a small area on the far northern shore belongs to

Tønsberg Municipality Tønsberg () is a municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jarlsberg. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg which was established in the 9th century. Other larger pop ...

. The island is between the Ytre Oslofjord (to the east) and the Tønsbergfjorden (to the west). Most of the northern part of the island is considered part of the city of Tønsberg metropolitan area which spans parts of Tønsberg and Færder municipalities. In the southern part of the island, there are three larger urban villages: Glomstein on the west coast, Kjøpmannskjær on the south coast, and Årøysund on the east coast. Historically, the island was part of the old Nøtterøy Municipality which existed from 1838 until 1 January 2018 when it became part of Færder Municipality.

Transportation

The island is connected to the mainland by the

Tønsberg Canal Bridge Tønsberg Canal Bridge ( no, Tønsberg kanalbru or just ) is a double-leaf bascule bridge in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in North ...

. The Vrengensund Bridge connects Nøtterøy to the island of Tjøme to the south. There is also a ferry between the village of Tenvik on the southwestern coast of Nøtterøy and the island of

Veierland Veierland is a populated, carfree island in Færder municipality, Norway. A ferry service operated by Jutøya AS connects the island with the nearby, larger island of Nøtterøy. The island also has a permanent ferry link to Engø peninsula in ...

in the Tønsbergfjorden. In the summer, there is also a ferry between Tenvik and Engø in

Sandefjord Municipality Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

on the mainland to the southwest of Nøtterøy. Nøtterøy is also connected to the islands of Føynland and Husøy to the northeast by a bridge.

History

The island of Nøtterøy has been inhabited for thousands of years. The areas along the sea were first populated and many burial mounds have been found, especially in the Årøysund areas. Søndre Hella on the western coast of the island has one of the largest burial mounds on the island, likely with more than 20 graves from the

Early Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

. Nøtterøy was an important location for

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

during the

Gunboat War The Gunboat War (, ; 1807–1814) was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Na ...

between Sweden and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

from 1807 to 1814, when two telegraph stations were on the island at its two highest points: Vardås and Vetan. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Germans planned three gun emplacements on Vardås, which were to have a range of . Only one of the cannons was completed before liberation in 1945.

Name

The original name of the island was the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

name or simply . The first element is the verb which means "to enjoy" or "to receive benefit from". The last element is which means "island". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Nøtterø'', using the Riksmal spelling. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Nøtterøy''. The letter ''y'' was added to the end of the word to "Norwegianize" the name ( is the Danish word for "island" and is the Norwegian word).

Nature

The bedrock of the island consists of

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an o ...

rocks: gray to blue-gray

larvikite Larvikite is an igneous rock, specifically a variety of monzonite, notable for the presence of thumbnail-sized crystals of feldspar. These feldspars are known as ''ternary'' because they contain significant components of all three endmember f ...

and reddish brown tønsbergite. It also includes some smaller parts of pegmatite (which may have gem-developed

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) felds ...

or moonstone) and diabase. The landscape is slightly hilly, especially in the south and west, reaching its highest point at Veten which reaches above sea level. Along the sea and other places where the rocky hills have little vegetation, there are large, clear scour marks from the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

. The flora on the island is very rich and diverse.

Media gallery

Aaroysund.jpg, Årøysund area Munkerekka.jpg, Munkerekka Tenvik brygge.jpg, Tenvik harbour

References