Farsund

 

Farsund is a municipality and a town southwest of Agder county. Farsund is a coastal municipality with the North Sea in the south and west, and borders Kvinesdal in the northwest and Lyngdal in the southeast. The municipality has 9,695 inhabitants (2019). Today's municipality was established in 1965, when the city municipality of Farsund was merged with the neighboring municipalities Lista, Herad and Spind, and the new municipality was named after the city.

 

Geography
Farsund is located between Rosfjorden in the east and Fedafjorden in the west. Between these fjords lies a landscape consisting of peninsulas, islands, fjords and straits. Listalandet forms the western part of the municipality.

The Lyngdalsfjord, together with the Uppstafjord and the side fjord Drangsfjorden, is a central landscape element. The fjord empties through a narrow but navigable strait, and here lies the town of Farsund. Sellegrodsfjorden, Helvikfjorden and Framvaren form a waterway north from Farsund. In the heart of Framvaren, there is only one property, Listeid, which separates from Eidsfjorden. Here it is possible to transport boats over, and so the small boat people can avoid sailing on the outside of the weather-hardened Listaland. This is a business with historical roots that probably goes far back in time.

Spindfjorden is located east of Farsund, centrally in the old Spind municipality. Outside this fjord there is a large archipelago, and Langøy is one of many beautiful islands. The municipality also has about a mile of sandy beaches on the Listahalvøya.

The highest point in Farsund municipality is Lyfjellet, 487 m high.

Geology
The western part of Agder belongs to the Svekonorvegian bedrock shield. It consists of two main geological formations of Proterozoic rocks formed during the Gothic and later Sveconorvegian mountain range ancestors, with a strong metamorphosis below the latter. A substrate of 1450–1600 million years old slate, quartzite, marble and amphibolite with some hornblende gneiss, and on top of this acidic surface structures of both granite and granodiorite (respectively 1000–1250 million years old, and in places 1480–1550 million years old). The youngest Sveconorvegian formations are witnessed by larger formations of granite. The Caledonian mountain range fold did not reach down here. The faults go both in the southwest-northeast direction and in the south-north direction.

Nature conservation
Lista - one of the southernmost points in Norway - has special significance for migratory birds. Lista wetland system is a Ramsar site consisting of a total of ten separate nature reserves. The area includes shallow coves along the coast, dune landscapes, bogs and swamps and shallow and nutrient-rich lakes. The area has a special vegetation, among other things in connection with the dunes facing the sea. The areas have had the status of Ramsar site since 1996.