Leirvík ( da, Lervig) is a town on the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

and was an important regional ferry harbour at the east coast of the second-largest island

Eysturoy Eysturoy (pronounced estroimeaning 'East Island') is a region and the second-largest of the Faroe Islands, both in size and population. Description Eysturoy is separated by a narrow sound from the main island of Streymoy. Eysturoy is extremely ...

. Leirvík has a population of 1,048 (2022). It was the only town in the municipality of Leirvík (''Leirvíkar kommuna''), however on 1 January 2009, it merged with Gøtu kommuna to make the new municipality called

Eysturkommuna Eystur Municipality (Eysturkommuna) is a municipality (kommuna) in the Faroe Islands. In Faroese, ''eystur'' means east and so the municipality is ''East Municipality''. It covers an eastern part of the island of Eysturoy. It was created on 1 Jan ...

. Leirvík is important for its fishing industry. The

Norðoyatunnilin Norðoyatunnilin (''The Northern Isles Tunnel'') is a two-lane road tunnel under the Leirvíksfjørður in the Faroe Islands. It connects the islands of Eysturoy and Borðoy. The tunnel is 6.2 km long and goes down to a depth of 150 metre ...

, a submarine tunnel to

Klaksvík Klaksvík is the second largest town of the Faroe Islands behind Tórshavn. The town is located on Borðoy, which is one of the northernmost islands (the Norðoyar). It is the administrative centre of Klaksvík municipality. History The first s ...

to the east, was opened in April 2006. A

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating ...

system pulls heat from the sea, increases the heat in a

heat pump A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing ...

History

Archaeological excavations have shown that the town was first settled the 9th century by the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

s. It is said that all inhabitants died in 1349 because of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

References

External links

Faroeislands.dk: Leirvík
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leirvik Populated places established in the 9th century Populated places in the Faroe Islands

History

See also

References

External links