Vikeid (the Vik Isthmus) is a flat

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

on the island of

Langøya Langøya is the third largest island of Norway (outside of Svalbard), with an area of . The island is a part of the Vesterålen archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The island includes the municipalities of Bø and Øksnes as well as parts ...

in the municipality of

Sortland or is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sortland. Other population centres in Sortland include Bø, Holand, Holmstad, ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

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 t ...

. The village of

Vik Vik (Old Norse: vík) means wick or bay in Norwegian and Swedish (''vig'' in Danish), and it may refer to the following: Places Iceland *Vík í Mýrdal, a village in southern Iceland Iran *Vik, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran Norway *V ...

lies on the east side of the isthmus and the village of

Frøskeland Frøskeland ( sme, Fruoska) is a village in Sortland Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Geography Frøskeland lies on the island of Langøya, at the innermost part of Eidsfjorden, on the west side of the Vikeid isthmus. County Road 820 ...

lies on the west side. The isthmus has the Eidsfjorden to the west and the

Sortlandsundet Sortlandsundet or Sortlandssundet ( en, Sortland Sound''Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse'' no. 212. 1983. Trondheim: Norges Geologiske Undersokelse, p. 6.) is a strait or sound in Sortland Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It separates th ...

strait in the east. The isthmus almost divides Langøya in two. To the north lies the northwestern part of the municipality of Sortland, and further north the municipality of

Øksnes Øksnes is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the northwestern part of the large island of Langøya, which is a part of the traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village o ...

. The southwest part of the municipality of Sortland lies south of the isthmus. The Eidsfjorden and the western part of the isthmus belonged to the municipality of

Hadsel Hadsel ( sme, Válafierda) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stokmarknes. Other villages in Hadsel include Fiskebøl, ...

until 1963, when it was transferred to Sortland. The isthmus is marshy. Parts of the isthmus are cultivated as grassland, and some areas have been trenched and planted with

Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

. In the eastern part of the isthmus is the former

Vikeid Agricultural Machine Operators' School Vikeid (the Vik Isthmus) is a flat isthmus on the island of Langøya in the municipality of Sortland in Nordland county, Norway. The village of Vik lies on the east side of the isthmus and the village of Frøskeland lies on the west side. The i ...

. The school was closed in the summer of 2005. There are several lakes in the eastern part of the isthmus, toward Frøskeland. County Road 820 from Sortland to Bø crosses Vikeid from east to west. Most of the route crosses the isthmus in a straight line, and the road is therefore known as one of the routes in

Vesterålen Vesterålen is a district and archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located just north of Lofoten and west of Harstad. It is the northernmost part of Nordland county. Sortland is the largest town, situated near the center of the archipel ...

with a lot of speeding. In 2004, the Vesterålen radio-controlled vehicle club held the northern Norwegian model aircraft championship at the premises of the Vikeid Agricultural Machine Operators' School. Since the end of the 1990s, the

pink-footed goose The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark. The nam ...

has grazed in parts of Vikeid during the spring migration period. Previously the geese grazed more on grassy fields and marshes along the Sortland Sound,Tombre, Ingunn M. et al. 2005. ''Kortnebbgjess og hvitkinngjess i Vesterålen''. Tromsø: Norsk institutt for naturforskning, pp. 17ff. but the geese have been increasingly been driven from these pastures and have begun to find new pastures at a greater distance from the sound.

References

{{Authority control Sortland Isthmuses of Europe