Leka is the main

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 ...

Leka Municipality Leka is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Leknes, Trøndelag, ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

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 makes up about half of the area of the municipality of Leka. The island is surrounded by dozens of smaller islands. The smaller island of Madsøya lies south of Leka, and it is connected to Leka by a short bridge. The larger island of

Austra Austra may refer to: *Austra, Norway, an island between Trøndelag and Nordland counties *Austra (band) Austra is a Canadian electronic music band from Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalit ...

lies about east of Leka. There is a ferry connection between Leka and Austra, and Austra is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The village of

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 ...

is the

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

and it is located on the northeast part of the island.

Leka Church Leka Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Leka Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Leknes on the island of Leka. It is the church for the Leka parish which is part of the Namdal prosti ( ...

is located on the island as well. The mountain Lekamøya lies on the southern part of the island.

History

The

has been inhabited for at least 10,000 years, as evidenced by cave drawings in the

Solsem cave The Solsem cave is a cave lying to the southwest of the Leka (island), island of Leka in Leka Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The cave is well known for its cave paintings, which were discovered in 1912. For a long time, they were the on ...

at the southwest tip of the island. Dated to 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 ...

, the

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

Herlaugshaugen is one of the largest (in Norway) from that era.

Name

The

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

form of the name was ''Leka''. The meaning of the name is unknown, but it may come from the word ''lekke'' which can mean "gravelly ground".

References

{{authority control Islands of Trøndelag Leka, Norway

History

Name

See also

References