Kunoy

There are two settlements on Kunoy: Kunoy (population 64) on the west coast and Haraldssund on the south-east coast. These have been connected by a tunnel since 1988. Haraldssund is connected by a causeway to the neighbouring island of Borðoy to the east of Kunoy. Before the causeway was built, travel to the island was by ferry. Nowadays the 504 bus runs a regular service across the causeway, with a route from Klaksvík through Ánir then across to Haraldssund and through the tunnel to Kunoy.^[1]

A third settlement, Skarð, was the site of a fishing accident on Christmas Eve, 1913 which killed seven men (all the male population except a 14-year-old and a 70-year-old). The women decided to move to Haraldssund, and the area is now deserted.

The coastline of the northern tip of the island has been identified as an Important Bird AreabyBirdLife International because of its significance as a breeding site for seabirds, especially European storm petrels (250 pairs) and black guillemots (200 pairs).^[2]

The brown rat, was introduced on purpose by people from Klaksvík, to the island in 1914 over some slight,^[3] and it has done tremendous damage to the bird population since then, most notably the Atlantic puffin.

The island has the following eleven mountains, shown with their overall rank in the Faroe Islands:^[4] The top of Klubbin is well known for its vegetation, as it is one of the few areas where there never have been grazing sheep.

• Símun av Skarði (1872–1942), the Faroese poet, politician and teacher and founder of the Faroese Folk High School (Føroya Fólkaháskúli) was born in Skarð, which was a small settlement on Kunoy, which was abandoned in 1919. He wrote the Faroese National Anthem, Mítt alfagra land.

• personal website Archived 2006-02-23 at the Wayback Machine with 6 aerial photos of Kunoy