Rennesøy

Rennesøy is a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It was merged into Stavanger municipality on 1 January 2020. It was located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vikevåg. Other villages in Rennesøy included Askje and Sørbø. The municipality encompassed a number of islands on the south side of the Boknafjorden, north of the city of Stavanger. At the time of its dissolution, the municipality was the 404th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Rennesøy was the 207th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 4,892. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 38.7% over the last decade. The parish of Rennesø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 July 1884, the municipality was split in two with the islands of Mosterøy, Klosterøy, Fjøløy, Kvitsøy, and the western part of Åmøy forming the new municipality of Mosterøy, and the islands of Rennesøy and Brimse remained as Rennesøy municipality. This split left Rennesøy with 1,092 residents, less than half of its previous population. The island of Kvitsøy later became an independent municipality of its own. On 1 July 1918, the Hanasand area of the neighboring municipality of Finnøy (population: 72) that was located on the island of Rennesøy was transferred to Rennesøy municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the municipality of Mosterøy was merged back into Rennesøy. Prior to the merger, Rennesøy had 1,370 residents. On 1 January 2020, the municipalities of Finnøy, Rennesøy, and Stavanger were merge into one, large municipality called Stavanger. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the main island of the municipality, Rennesøy (Rennisøy). The meaning of the first element is unknown. One possibility is that it comes from the word rani which means "snout", likely referring to the shape of the mountain Hodnafjellet on the southeast part of the island.