Vestvågøya (or less-commonly: ''Vest-Vågøy'') is an island in the

Lofoten Lofoten ( , ; ; ) is an archipelago and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches, and untouched lands. T ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county, Norway. The island is located within Vestvågøy Municipality. The island lies between the islands of

Austvågøya Austvågøya is the northeasternmost and largest of the larger islands in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located between the Vestfjorden and the Norwegian Sea. The island of Vestvågøya lies to the southwest and the ...

and Gimsøya to the northeast and

Flakstadøya Flakstadøya is an island in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The entire island lies within Flakstad Municipality with the Vestfjorden on the east side of the island and the Norwegian Sea on the west side of the island. Geog ...

to the southwest. There are also several small islands and skerries surrounding the island. Vestvågøya makes up over 97% of the municipal area and about 99% of the inhabitants of the municipality live on the island. The

European route E10 European route E10 is the second shortest Class A road which is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Å, Norway, and ends in Luleå, Sweden. The road is about in length. The Norwegian part of the road is also named Kong Ol ...

highway crosses the island connecting to Flakstadøya by the Nappstraum Tunnel and to Gimsøya by the Sundklakkstraumen Bridge. The middle part of the island is relatively flat and

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

y, while the outer parts in the north and south are mountainous. The highest point on the island is the tall mountain ''Himmeltindan''. The flat parts of the island are largely agricultural land. There is one town on the island (

Leknes Leknes () is a town in Vestvågøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of Vestvågøy Municipality (with 11,619 inhabitants, it is the most populous municipality in Lofoten and Vesterålen). Lek ...

) and several large villages on the island including

Stamsund Stamsund is a fishing village in Vestvågøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the southern side of the island of Vestvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago, along the Vestfjorden. The village is located about east of the to ...

, Ballstad, and Gravdal. In Vestvågøya mountains have steep slopes towards the open sea in the northwest and southeast while slopes pointing towards the interior of the island are more gentle. This is the result of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

acting on a landscape that has been uplifted along southwest-northwest-trending faults in the margins of Lofoten while the interior axis has remained more stable. Stamsund_Svarholt

References

Vestvågøy Islands of Nordland {{Nordland-island-stub

See also

References