LEKSA

..an island situated right in the middle of the seaway taking you from the Atlantic Ocean in to Trondheim, Norway, and a part of the Orkland municipalty (earlier Agdenes municipality.)

 

 

FACTS

It consists of two islands, Sør- Leksa og Nord-Leksa (South-Leksa and North-Leksa). These were linked by a road and a bridge in 1986.

 

North-Leksa with its surrounding islets and rocks measures about 1.1 km2 and has a coastline of about 6 kilometres.

 

South-Leksa with its islets and rocks is about 4.6 km2 and has a coastline of about 16 kilometres.

 

The distance from the ferry quay in Nord-Leksa to the quay in South-Leksa is 5.4 km.

 

The highest point in North- Leksa is Heradsvikhøgda, measuring 55.3 metres above sea-level.

 

The highest point in South-Leksa is Jøtudalskallen, 102.4 metres above sea-level.

 

In South-Leksa there is a small fishing harbour with a breakwater whose construction work was finished in 1978.

 

 

 

Leksa has a separate ferry connection, established January the1st in 2000. There is a daily connection to Garten in Oerland, and to Vaernes in Agdenes. There are several daily departures.

 

 

                                               LEKSA TODAY

  

We has to admit that Leksa is becoming a holiday island. A paradise, according to many!

There are some thirty cabins/holiday houses out here, and that number is rapidly growing, since there are still more under construction, and more building sites are being made available.

 

  

There is no camping site at Leksa.

 

In Leksa Grendahus, South-Leksa, there is one apartment for hire. It can be rented for just 1 day, or for longer periods.

The Grendahus itself may also be rented by larger groups. There is in addition a 3-bedroom house in North-Leksa for rent.

 

State services or private, additional services will be found on the mainland, except for a small store with postal services where the most necessary items can be bought.

 

 

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Leksa also has a rich birdlife, with a lot of nesting species.

 

In the autumn, and also wintertime, there are a lot of white-tailed eagles, but whether they nest here is unknown. In the spring they are always gone.

 

An old saying has it that by the 12^th of March there will be an oystercatcher on every spit of land, and it proves to be true every year. And when the curlew, and then the graylag goose come, then spring has arrived in Leksa!

 

There are very few predators, just the otter, the mink and the ermine – so the birds also have  found an Eldora do in Leksa with very few enemies.

 

In the summer season we might get an occasional visit from deer. They probably come swimming from Hitra, the bigger neighbouring island. But not all of them can do the strenuous swim, so deer carcasses are not uncommonly found on the shores of Leksa.

 

The area around Leksa is popular with people fishing in their leisure time, as there are a lot of good spots for fishing, from land as well as from a boat.

 

 

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                                     FISHING AND AGRICULTURE

 

The sources of income for the people of Leksa have traditionally been the sea and the soil.

 

In older days salmon fishing provided an important income. An enormous amount of salmon was regularly caught at the northwest end of the island. But today no one is carrying out this seasonal fishing any more.

 

Today agriculture is the main source of income, and 4 farms work 660.000 square metres – or 660 dekars of land.

 

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                                   CULTURAL HERITAGE – see Fortidsminner  for more.

 

Leksa is also a classic area for dwelling in the older Stone Age, being situated so centrally at the coast. In connection with work concerning the construction of more holiday houses at Leksa, the department of Culture of Sør-Trøndelag Fylkeskommune made a survey of the sites of cultural heritage in a larger area in Sør-Leksa. It was known from earlier times that Leksa was mentioned by Snorre (see Eindride Ljoksa). We also knew that there in the middle of the island supposedly was an old grave from prehistoric times, a big heap of stones placed where it could be seen both from the inside and the outside of the island. On our way through the area we stopped at some shallow lowering in the ground. And our suspicion was aroused. Could this be house sites from the Stone Age? After a few days of digging we could confirm that there were 10 roundish house sites in all, most of them in a cluster, and with two sites a little apart.

 

From the material that has been found in these sites, it is difficult to give more precise estimates yet, than that this place probably was inhabited some time late in the older Stone Age, or early in the younger Stone Age. That would give us some time between 5000 and 7000 years ago.

 

Ref. Kristian Pettersen, archaeologist of Sør-Trøndelag County (fylke)

 

 

This area lies right below the big heap of stones, the prehistoric grave. Today there is a nice path for walking out there, and the area has information boards.

 

For further information and possible guiding, contact landowner Torgeir Berg.

 

This might be the biggest find in Leksa yet, but we have more prehistoric graves and other sites of cultural heritage.

 

The autumn of the year 2000 two more areas were surveyed in connection with plans for the construction of holiday houses, one in Sør-Leksa and one in Nord-Leksa.