Edøya is an

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

in Smøla Municipality in

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

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 island lies in the Edøyfjorden between the larger islands of

Smøla Smøla is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hopen, other villages include Dyrnes, Råket, and Veiholmen. The municipalit ...

(to the north) and Ertvågsøya and

Tustna Tustna is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative centre was the village of Gullstein. The municipality is located in the present-day Aure Municipality. The municipality included the main islands of Tus ...

(to the south). The island played an important political role during the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period The ...

. More recently, it was the center of the old municipality of

Edøy 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 ...

and the historic

Old Edøy Church Old Edøy Church ( no, Edøy gamle kirke) 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 large ...

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

Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research ( no, Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning, NIKU) is a cultural heritage research institute based in Oslo, Norway. Organization The institute has nearly 80 employees and regional offices ...

, using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a 17 meter long Viking ship was buried near

Edøy Church Edøy Church ( no, Edøy kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Smøla Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Edøy on the southern coast of the island of Smøla. It is the main church for ...

. 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

to the south. This is the only regular ferry connection in all of Smøla Municipality, 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 {{Møre og Romsdal-geo-stub

See also

References