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.
General information
The parish of Rennesø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. 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 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.
Name
The municipality was named after the main island of the municipality, Rennesøy. The Old Norse form of the name was Rennisøy. The meaning of the first element is unknown and the last element is øy which means "island". Before 1918, the name was written "Rennesø".
The island municipality sat on the south side of the large Boknafjorden. It consists of about 80 islands, most of which are uninhabited. The main islands are Rennesøy, Mosterøy, Klosterøy, Fjøløy, Sokn, Bru, Brimse, and the western part of Åmøy. All of the main islands are connected together and to the mainland by a series of bridges and tunnels. The Fjøløy Lighthouse is located in the northwestern part of the municipality, lighting a main shipping channel to Stavanger.
The municipal council of Rennesøy is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
Transportation
Since 1992, Rennesøy municipality has been connected to the mainland by a series of bridges and undersea tunnels. The Byfjord Tunnel connects the mainland to the island of Sokn, and it is part of the European route E39 highway. The island of Sokn is connected to the three islands of Åmøy, Bru, and Mosterøy by bridges. Mosterøy is connected to Fjøløy and Klosterøy by short bridges and to Rennesøy by the undersea Mastrafjord Tunnel. Rennesøy island is also connected to the island of Vestre Bokn by ferry. Furthermore, the island of Rennesøy is connected to the two islands of Finnøy and Talgje in the neighboring municipality of Finnøy to the northeast by the Finnøy Tunnel.
