Skopun

Location of Skopun

Location of the municipality

Postage stamp from 2006

Skopun [ ˈskoːpʊn ] ( Danish : Skopen ) is a place in the Faroe Islands on the north coast of the island of Sandoy , where the strait Skopunarfjørður separates the island from Streymoy and Hestur .

• Population: 507 (January 1, 2007)
• Post code: FO 240
• Municipality : Skopunar kommuna

The municipality Skopun consists of this one place. It is the second largest on the sand island . Due to its location, it has always been the point where the crossing to the main island of Streymoy was made. There used to be no settlement here, only a boathouse with a rowboat.

The actual place was founded in 1833. The people of Skopun did not have their own land, but lived from fishing . That explains why the houses are all very close together.

In 1897 the church was built from the wood of the old Vestmanna church. In 1918 the first road in the Faroe Islands was built here, through the valley to Sandur , the main town of the island in the south.

The port of Skopun was built in 1926. As a result, it was continuously expanded until it received a gate in 1982 that can be closed when the sea is rough, so that the harbor basin is spared. Here is a fillet factory and the local fishing fleet.

While the car ferry to Skopun used to run from the capital Tórshavn , today the Teistin ferry departs from Gamlarætt harbor on the southwest coast of Streymoy, which was built in 1991 . In October 2004, a feasibility study for the Sandoy tunnel from there to Skopun was commissioned for the first time . This nine-kilometer tunnel would be the longest undersea road tunnel in the world.

Personalities

• Peter Mohr Dam (1898–1968), former Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands

Web links

Commons : Skopun  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Faroeislands.dk: Skopun (in English. Info and photos)
• Official homepage (Faroese). Archived from the original on July 25, 2002 ; accessed on August 2, 2015 . 

Coordinates: 61 ° 55 ′  N , 6 ° 52 ′  W