Thy (district)

The southernmost part of Thy, the Thyholm Peninsula, belongs to Struer Municipality in the Central Denmark Region.

In the Limfjord is the island of Mors, considered a twin district of Thy, and south of the fjord is Hardsyssel in western mainland Jutland.

In the north it is marked by flat coastal plains which were covered by sea in Neolithic times, but fell dry because of the post-glacial rebound.

The eastern stretch, facing the Limfjord, has quite fertile soil, is slightly hilly and dotted with small villages and farms like the landscape in most of rural Denmark.

Behind the dunes, there is heath with stretches of Calluna heather, Iceland moss, Cladonia, crowberry, bilberry, blueberry, cranberry and orchids including the unique Dactylorhiza majalis subsp.

A line of lakes, believed to have been caused by the sand drifts blocking the outflow to the sea, mark the border between the western, sparsely populated sandy area and the eastern, fertile farmland.

On 10 July 2007, a police officer from Hanstholm found a hermit in the state forest of Hjardemål Klit, one of the more deserted areas in the north of Thy.

On 1 March 2013, the Minister of the Environment Ida Auken, initiated on this background the formulation of a Danish action plan concerning wolves.

In 1085 Thy was the gatehead for King Canute the Holy's plans to retake England from William the Conqueror, with 1,000 ships gathered in the Limfjord until the expedition was cancelled and a peasant uprising broke out.

The German Wehrmacht built huge fortifications along the west coast of Jutland for fear that the allied invasion would take place here.

Tourism is a major business in summer, the coastal villages receiving many German tourists and smaller numbers of Norwegians, Swedes, Dutch and others.

Most major employers are based in Thisted: Cimbria (combine harvesters and grain dryers), Coloplast (medical plastic products), Oticon (hearing aids), and HM Automatic/Thy El-Teknik (industrial electrical systems).

There is, however, some international transit traffic due to the ferry lines from Hanstholm harbour to Western Norway and the North Atlantic.