Leirvík is a town on the Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...

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

Eysturoy

Eysturoy means East island and is the second-largest of the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, both in size and population. It is separated by a narrow sound from the main island of Streymoy. Eysturoy is extremely rugged, with some 66 separate mountain peaks, including Slættaratindur, the...

. Leirvík has 867 inhabitants (December 31, 2002.)

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

Eysturkommuna

Eystur is a municipality in the Faroese Islands. It covers a part of the island of Eysturoy.The municipality was created on 1 January 2009 from the merger of Leirvík and Gøtu municipalities. It includes the villages of Norðragøta, Gøtueiði, Gøtugjógv and Syðrugøta, as well as other small settlements...

.

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

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

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

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

.

Apart from the important ferry connection to Klaksvík

Klaksvík

Klaksvík is the second largest town of the Faroe Islands.The town is located on Borðoy, which is one of the northernmost islands ....

, Leirvík is also important for its fishing industry.

The Norðoyatunnilin

Norðoyatunnilin

Norðoyatunnilin is with 6,300 m the longest tunnel of the Faroe Islands. It connects the town of Leirvík on Eysturoy under the strait Leirvíksfjørður with the city of Klaksvík on Borðoy....

, a submarine tunnel to Klaksvík was opened in April 2006.

External links

• Leirvik.fo - homepage (in Faroese)
• Faroeislands.dk: Leirvík

See also

• Leirvik
  Leirvik
  Leirvik is a town and the administrative centre of Stord municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Leirvik is the regional centre of Sunnhordland, and has many public services and offices such as the regional court and Sunnhordland Museum, as well as shops and restaurants...
  
   in Norway
  Norway
  Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
  
  
• Lerwick
  Lerwick
  Lerwick is the capital and main port of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, located more than 100 miles off the north coast of mainland Scotland on the east coast of the Shetland Mainland...
  
   on the Shetland Islands
  Shetland Islands
  Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
  
  
• List of towns in the Faroe Islands