Øvre Sirdal


Øvre Sirdal is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1905 until 1960 and it was located in the northern part of the present-day municipality of Sirdal. The administrative centre was the village of Lunde where Lunde Church is located.

Name

The name "Øvre Sirdal" means "upper Sirdal" since it was created from the northern part of the old Sirdal municipality. The Old Norse form of the name was Sírudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the river Síra and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The meaning of the rivername is unknown.

History

The municipality of Øvre Sirdal was established on 1 January 1905 when the old Sirdal formannskapsdistrikt was split into two municipalities: Øvre Sirdal and Tonstad. On 1 January 1960, Øvre Sirdal was merged with the neighboring municipality of Tonstad and the Øksendal area of the municipality of Bakke to form a new municipality of Sirdal.