Bindal

Bindal is a municipality in the Helgeland region in the extreme southwest part of Nordland county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Terråk. Other villages include Bindalseidet, Holm, Vassås, and Åbygda.

General information
In 1838, the parish of Bindal was split into two municipalities (see formannskapsdistrikt) because the parish included land in both the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland. The new law required that municipalities be located only in one county, so the parish was divided into two municipalities: Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen. In 1852, the county border was moved south to its current position and the municipalities of Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen were merged back together to form the municipality of Bindal. On 1 January 1964, the Tosen-Lande area (population: 296) was transferred to Brønnøy.

Name
The Old Norse form of the name was Birnudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Birna (now Åbjøra) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from the word birna which means "(female) bear".

Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1990). The arms show six gold rivets on a blue background to represent the boat building industry in the municipality.

Churches
The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Bindal. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Geography
Bindal borders four municipalities in Nord-Trøndelag county: Høylandet and Nærøy in the south, Namsskogan in the southeast, and Leka in the west. Bindal also has borders with the Nordland municipalities of Sømna, Brønnøy, and Grane. The Bindalsfjorden runs through the central part of the municipality.

From the coast, the municipality reaches into the mountains towards the lake Majavatnet in Grane. The tallest mountain is the 1058 m tall Heilhornet. It also includes part of the lakes Eidevatnet and Fjellvatnet, which also partially lie in Brønnøy municipality. Other lakes include Åbjørvatnet, Kalvvatnet, and Saglivatnet. The river Åbjøra runs through the eastern part of Bindal. Part of the island of Austra is in Bindal.

Economy
The most important industries in Bindal are farming and forestry. The largest secondary industry is the door manufacturer, Bindalsbruket, with about 130 employees. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and Nordland boats are still manufactured here.

Culture
Boat races for Nordland boats are have been held annually since 1978 in the main village of Terråk during the last weekend of June.

Education
Bindal has three schools; two of them are classified as independent and therefore not administered by the municipality.


 * Terråk skole in Terråk is a 1st-10th grade school and the largest in Bindal with approximately 100 students attending it.
 * Kjella friskole, one of the independent schools, is located in Sørhorsfjord. It is a 1st-10th grade school.
 * Bindalseidet friskole is an independent school located in Bindalseidet. It is a 1st-10th grade school.