Livø

Livø is an island in the Limfjord ( Jutland, Denmark) with an area of ​​331 ha and has 9 inhabitants (1 January 2013). The island is located just a few kilometers north-east of Fur and about 10 kilometers southwest of Løgstør. In the period from April 1 to October 1 regularly a ferry between Rønbjerg and Livø. The crossing takes about 20 minutes. Livø belongs to the parish municipality (Danish: Sogn ) Ranum Sogn, which belonged until 1970 to Harde Slet Herred in Aalborg office, from 1970 to Løgstør municipality in the former North Jutland office, in the course of municipal reform on 1 January 2007 in Vesthimmerlands community the Nordjylland region has risen.

History

Traces in the form of tools, worked amber and remains of mud houses attest that the island was already inhabited in the Stone Age. In the period from 1158 to after the Reformation Livø was the property of the monastery Vitskøl. 1573 the island under the name Bjørnsholm became a manor until the island was sold again in 1850. After several, mostly less successful attempts at changing new owner to establish an economically viable existence, acquired in 1911, a certain Professor Keller the island and established here an institution for the mentally disabled, " the Kellerske Åndssvageanstalt ". In the next 50 years mentally handicapped criminals were housed here, who were employed in agriculture and forestry. The prison was abandoned in 1970. Some of the buildings from this time are now part of the resort on Livø. The island is owned by the state under the administration of the departments Nature ( Nature Agency ) of the Danish Ministry of the Environment; it is operated since 1991 ecological experimental and demonstration farm.

Geology

Livø has a glacially influenced landscape which is flat in the south and reaching up to 43 meters in the north. In the cliff on the northwest side of the island there are multiple profiles open, from which can be understand the depositional environment, the nature of some tertiary, but for the most part glacial sediments and glacial ice pressure caused by disturbances in the layer sequence.

A special feature is the approximately three kilometers long headland called Liv Tap in the south of the island. The headland is only a few meters wide. The particular form of this tongue of land goes back to the wind and current conditions in the environment of the island. The prevailing northwest winds cause on both sides of the island to the southeast extending flow. In the south of the island, where the streams meet in the slipstream, the entrained by the flow material is deposited. In the last 100 years the headland has grown by two kilometers. It is the extension of the city, in the southern part of the island barrier beach area, which also constantly growing. In Danish, this extraordinary form of a tongue of land as " retodde " is ( ret = even, odde = headland, Spit ) refers. Liv Tap is type locality for this headlands type.

Nature

Liv Tap is Robben reserve and may not be entered. In the summer months, however, go on organized trips from Fur and Rønbjerg the seal colonies. From the few exposed on the island about a hundred years ago, a deer for the small island quite sizable backlog has developed, which is regulated by annual kills.

The heath especially in the north of the island is the radical of a once extensive heath, which was primarily a dramatic decline since about 1800 due to agricultural land use. Today, large parts of the former heathland area is covered with coniferous forest. Also in the northern part of the island are the remains of old oak - hazel forest resources to meet that covered in the Stone Age, about 5000 years ago, when the climate was warmer than today, large parts of the island. Many oaks have an age of about 300 years.

Economy and Tourism

In addition to the government research facility during the summer months, tourism plays a certain role. Except for a camping ground in seven overnight cottages, which date back to the time of " Kellerske Åndssvageanstalt ", about 270 beds for holiday guests. On the East Coast is located near the ferry landing a small marina. Motor vehicles and dogs are not allowed on the island.