Vikeid or Vikeidet () is a flat
isthmus
An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea count ...
on the island of
Langøya
Langøya is the third largest island of Norway (outside of Svalbard), with an area of . The island is a part of the Vesterålen archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The island includes Bø Municipality and Øksnes Municipality as well as pa ...
in
Sortland Municipality
or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sortland (town ...
in
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
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 village of
Vik Vik or VIK may refer to:
Places
Finland
* Viikki, a neighbourhood of Helsinki, known as Vik in Swedish Iceland
* VÃk à Mýrdal, a village in southern Iceland
Iran
* Vik, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran
Norway
*Vik, Buskerud, a vill ...
lies on the east side of the isthmus and the village of
Frøskeland lies on the west side. The isthmus has the
Eidsfjorden to the west and the
Sortlandsundet strait in the east. The isthmus almost divides Langøya in two. To the north lies the northwestern part of Sortland Municipality, and further north is
Øksnes Municipality
Øksnes is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located on the northwestern part of the large island of Langøya, which is a part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of ...
. The southwest part of Sortland Municipality lies south of the isthmus. The Eidsfjorden and the western part of the isthmus belonged to
Hadsel Municipality
Hadsel () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of ...
until 1963, when it was transferred to Sortland Municipality.
The isthmus is marshy. Parts of the isthmus are cultivated as grassland, and some areas have been trenched and planted with
Norway spruce
''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.
It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very clo ...
. In the eastern part of the isthmus is the former
Vikeid Agricultural Machine Operators' School. The school was closed in the summer of 2005. There are several lakes in the eastern part of the isthmus, toward Frøskeland.
County Road 820 from Sortland to
Bø Municipality crosses Vikeid from east to west. Most of the route crosses the isthmus in a straight line, and the road is therefore known as one of the routes in
Vesterålen
Vesterålen ( , ; ) is a district and archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located just north of Lofoten and west of Harstad. It is the northernmost part of Nordland county. Sortland is the largest town, situated near the center of the a ...
with a lot of speeding.
In 2004, the Vesterålen radio-controlled vehicle club held the northern Norwegian model aircraft championship at the premises of the Vikeid Agricultural Machine Operators' School.
Since the end of the 1990s, the
pink-footed goose
The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, and recently Novaya Zemlya. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, a ...
has grazed in parts of Vikeid during the spring migration period. Previously the geese grazed more on grassy fields and marshes along the
Sortland Sound,
[Tombre, Ingunn M. et al. 2005. ''Kortnebbgjess og hvitkinngjess i Vesterålen''. Tromsø: Norsk institutt for naturforskning, pp. 17ff.] but the geese have been increasingly been driven from these pastures and have begun to find new pastures at a greater distance from the sound.
References
{{Authority control
Sortland
Isthmuses of Europe