Sørvágsvatn, sometimes called Leitisvatn, is the largest lake in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

. It is situated on the island of

Vágar Vágar (; ) is one of the 18 islands in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands and the most westerly of the ''large islands''. With a size of , it ranks third in size, behind Streymoy and Eysturoy. Vágar Regions of the Faroe Islands, region also ...

, between the municipalities of

Sørvágur :''There is also a town called Vágur on Suðuroy.'' Sørvágur () is a village on the island of Vágar in the Faroe Islands. It is located at the landward end of Sørvágsfjørður. Sørvágur is the largest village in Sørvágur Municipality. ...

and

. The local reference is mostly just ''Vatnið'' ("The lake"). The area is , more than three times the size of Fjallavatn, the second largest lake, also located on Vágar.

Name

Among the locals, there is disagreement regarding the name of the lake. The inhabitants of

to the west prefer ''Sørvágsvatn'', which means "the lake by Sørvágur". The inhabitants of

Miðvágur Miðvágur (), is a village in the Faroe Islands on Vágar. It has been a municipality until 1 January 2009 when it fused with Sandavágur into Vága kommuna. Located on the south coast of the island of Vágar, Miðvágur is the largest town on t ...

and

Sandavágur Sandavágur () is a town on the south coast of the Faroese island of Vágar. The name ''Sandavágur'' means ''sandy bay'' and refers to the sandy beach which used to be much larger than present. From one point in Sandavágur you can get a view of ...

to the east prefer ''Leitisvatn'', which means "the lake by Leiti", referring to the territory on the east side of it. The village of Miðvágur is closer to the lake than Sørvágur, but the latter is considered to have been settled earlier. Sørvágur —alongside

Bøur Bøur () is a village in the Sørvágur Municipality of the Faroe Islands, 4 km west of Sørvágur, with a population of 75 (2012).

and

—is considered one of the three original settlements on Vágar. These divided the land on the island into three equal regions of 60

mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

s, which would place the lake within Sørvágur's region. The locals mostly refer to it as ''Vatnið'' ("the lake"), which is understood to refer to that body of water. The debate occurs mostly when people from other parts of the Faroes refer to the lake by one of its given names.

Geography

The lake is located very close to the ocean, but its surface is about above the sea level. It is surrounded by a higher cliff which prevents it from emptying fully into the ocean, the waterfall

Bøsdalafossur Bøsdalafossur is a waterfall in the Faroe Islands that flows from the lake Sørvágsvatn/Leitissvatn into the Atlantic Ocean. It has a height of 30 meters. See also * List of waterfalls References

Vágar Waterfalls of the Faroe Isla ...

being the outlet. The greater height of the cliffs on either side of Bøsdalafossur can give the illusion from certain perspectives that the lake is higher above sea level than it is.

History

During World War II, the British army built an airfield (now

Vágar Airport Vágar Airport () is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, and is located east of the village of Sørvágur, on the island of Vágar and 46 km (29 miles) west of the capital Tórshavn. Due to the Faroe Islands' status as a self-governing ...

) to the west of the lake. They also built a station to support

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

s. The first aircraft to land on the lake was a Catalina from

RAF Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

, in 1941.

Places and names

* Trælanípan * Oyrar *

Vágar Waterfalls of the Faroe Isla ...

* Sjatlá * Sálarbótsá

Tourism

There are opportunities for fishing

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

on the lake. In the summer of 2005, a local initiative was set up for boat excursions on it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorvagsvatn Lakes of the Faroe Islands Vágar