Edøya is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Smøla Municipality Smøla is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hopen, Mø ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The island lies in the Edøyfjorden between the larger islands of

Smøla Smola or Smøla may refer to: People * Josef von Smola (1764–1820), an officer and holder of the Knight's and Commander's Crosses of the Order of Maria Theresa * Josef von Smola (1805–1856), an Austrian officer * Karl von Smola, an Austrian ...

(to the north) and Ertvågsøya and Tustna (to the south). The island played an important political role during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

. More recently, it was the center of the old

Edøy Municipality Edøy is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1960. It was located in the southern and central parts of the present-day Smøla Municipality. The old municipality or ...

and the historic

Old Edøy Church Old Edøy Church () is a historic parish church of the Church of Norway in Smøla Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located on the southwestern end of the small island of Edøya, just south of the larger island of Smøla (i ...

is located on the island. In 2019, archaeologists from the

Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (, NIKU) is a cultural heritage research institute based in Oslo, Norway. Organization The institute has nearly 80 employees and regional offices in Bergen, Trondheim, Tønsberg and Tromsø. I ...

, using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a long Viking ship was buried near

Edøy Church Edøy Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Smøla Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at Straumen on the southern coast of the island of Smøla. It is the main church for the Edøy parish which is ...

. They estimate the ship's age as over 1,000 years: from the Merovingian or Viking period; the group planned to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by a NIKU team in 2018, in Gjellestad. The island has a road connection to the island of

and there is a ferry connection from Edøya to Tustna to the south. This is the only regular ferry connection in all of

, connecting it to the rest of Norway. The Tyrhaug Lighthouse is located on a tiny islet off the coast of Edøya in the Edøyfjorden.

References

Islands of Møre og Romsdal Smøla {{MøreRomsdal-island-stub

See also

References