Hurumlandet is a peninsula in Buskerud

Buskerud

is a county in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark, and Vestfold. The county administration is located in Drammen.-Geography:...

 county, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It is situated west of the Oslofjord

Oslofjord

The Oslofjord is a bay in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north....

 and east of the Drammensfjord

Drammensfjord

Drammensfjord is a fjord in Norway that connects to Ytre Oslofjord on the west side. It stretches to the north and northeast. The Drammenselva river discharges into the head of the fjord...

. It comprises the municipalities Røyken

Røyken

Røyken is a village and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Midtbygda. The parish of Røken was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 ....

 and Hurum

Hurum

Hurum is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village Klokkarstua. The municipality of Hurum was established on 1 January 1838 . The small village of Holmsbu was granted town status in 1847, but it did not become a municipality of its own...

. Hurumlandet is located south of Asker

Asker

Asker is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Viken traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Asker. The municipality is a suburb of Oslo, the national capital...

. It is connected to Follo

Follo

Follo is one of three districts in the county of Akershus, Norway. It is located between Oslo and Østfold and includes the southwestern part of the county's area east of Oslo, namely the municipalities Frogn, Oppegård, Ski, Vestby, Ås, Nesodden, and Enebakk...

 through the subsea Oslofjord Tunnel. Before 1990, Hurumlandet was the planned location for the new Oslo Airport

Oslo Airport localization controversy

The location of the airport serving Oslo, Norway, has been the subject of several political debates since 1918. The fist controversy was initially related to choice between the islands of Gressholmen and Lindøya in the Oslofjord for a water aerodrome. The debate later changed, arriving at the...

. Ultimately, the airport was allocated to Gardermoen

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is the principal airport serving Oslo, Norway. It acts as the main domestic hub and international airport for Norway, and the second-busiest airport in the Nordic countries. A hub for Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle, and a focus city for Widerøe, it is...

.

History

Since the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, Hurumlandet was a strategic headland at the entrance to the country's capital. Militarily the peninsula has been of great importance and fortifications date since the Middle Ages. West at the Drammenfjord are fortifications from the 1890s.

Geography

The bedrock is very varied with the remains of an ancient volcano in the central and Ersvika and a lot of red granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 in key areas. Hurum municipality consists mostly of granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 deposits in the west and center parties, with deposits of shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 and sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 in a belt in the south and east. In the south there are also some limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 and a raised section of Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...

, and started rock and quartzite

Quartzite

Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...

 parties.

Nature preserves

Hurum country has a disproportionate number of protected natural areas, due to the very rich and diverse biology on the peninsula. Hurum country has coastal coniferous forest and a rich fauna, particularly on the Toft

Toft

Toft is a placename and surname of Norse origin. Placenames ending in "-toft" are usually derivations of the Old Norse word topt meaning site of a house. As a placename and placename particle, it occurs in Denmark, Scania , England, Shetland and Normandy...

 islets. Wildlife includes moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, osprey

Osprey

The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...

, cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

 and eider

Eider

Eiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere....

.

In the south there are eight conservation areas - Holtnesdalen Nature Reserve, Solfjellåsene Nature Reserve (limestone habitats), Haraldsfjellet Nature Reserve (limestone habitats), Sandbukta-Østnestangen Nature Reserve (vegetation), Ersvikskjær Nature Reserve (bird), Tofteskogen Nature Reserve (forest), Ranvikholmen Nature Reserve (plant) and Tofteholmen Nature Reserve (plant). Further to the northeast lies Storskjær Nature Reserve outside Sætre

Sætre

Sætre is a village in the municipality of Hurum, Norway. Its population is 3,195, of which 77 people live within the border of the neighboring municipality Røyken.-References:...

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