Fosnes is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Dun on the island of Jøa. Other villages include Salsnes and Nufsfjord.

General information

Fosnes was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1871, the western district of Fosnes (population: 1,472) was separated to form the new municipality of Flatanger. This left Fosnes with 2,655 residents. On 1 January 1889, a small area of Fosnes (population: 61) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Vikten. Then on 1 January 1913, the western part of Fosnes (population: 1,631) was separated to form the new municipality of Otterøy. This left the much smaller municipality with 1,107 residents. On 1 January 1964, the Finnanger area of Fosnes on the island of Otterøya (population: 116) was transferred to the new municipality of Namsos.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Fosnes farm (Old Norse: Fólgsnnes), since the first church was built there. The first element is fólgsn which means "hiding place" and the last element is nes which means "headland". (The first element is referring to an inlet behind the farm, where ships could not be seen from the main fjord.) Historically, the name was spelled Fosnæs.