Skúvoy

Skúvoy
Skuø
Island

Skúvoy, as seen from Sandoy

Location within the Faroe Islands
Coordinates: 61°46′N 6°49′W / 61.767°N 6.817°W / 61.767; -6.817
State  Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country  Faroe Islands
Area
  Total 10 km2 (4 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2006)
  Total 52
  Density 5.2/km2 (13/sq mi)
Time zone GMT (UTC+0)
  Summer (DST) EST (UTC+1)
Calling code 298

Skúvoy /ˈskʉuːwɪ/ or Skúgvoy /ˈskɪkvɪ/ (Danish: Skuø) is an island in the central Faroe Islands, located to the south of Sandoy.

It is named after the large number of skua present on the island (who have a habit of attacking intruders). There is only one settlement on the island: Skúvoy on the east coast. There are two mountains: Knúkur (392 m) and Heyggjurin Mikli (391 m).

History

The Black Death in the 14th century killed all the inhabitants except one woman; her cottage can still be seen. Skúvoy was also the home of Sigmundur Brestisson, the hero of the Færeyinga saga (Saga of the Faroese).

Important Bird Area

There are 300–400 m cliffs along the west coast, which are home to many guillemots. Egg harvesting takes place in early June, though this occurs in the first week only so as to allow the guillemots to lay again. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for seabirds, especially northern fulmars (50,000 pairs), Manx shearwaters (10,000 pairs), European storm petrels (20,000 pairs), great skuas (25 pairs), Atlantic puffins (40,000 pairs), common guillemots (135,000 pairs) and black guillemots (150 pairs), as well as 40 breeding pairs of whimbrels.[1]

References

  1. BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Skúvoy. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-23.

External links

Look up Skúvoy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skúvoy.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 07, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.