Faroe Islands, Day 7

On our last day on Faroe Islands, we decided to take it easy. We woke up later than usual and went to explore Bøur, a tiny village on Vágar island. Since our cottage was located on the outskirts of Bøur, we just took a stroll along the main road.

Bøur

Just a handful of houses and a church, that is all Bøur has to offer. We could not find any service or community buildings, but the place is still picturesque enough for a morning stroll.

Trøllkonufingur — Witch’s finger

Near the Sandavágur village, on the Vágar island, there is an outlook from which you can see Trøllkonufingur, the Witch’s Finger. It is a free standing rock, although it was hard to see from the outlook that the rock was separate from the rest of the cliff.

Tórshavn

We had not really explored Tórshavn until the last day. It is a very pleasant city, with a picturesque harbor and lively, colorful houses. We found an information center that was part bookstore and part souvenir shop. We bought some souvenirs there, but the selection was quite limited.

We stopped for coffee and cakes at a lovely Kaffihúsið (The Coffee House) cafe at the harbor and ended up spending a couple of hours there just relaxing and eating sweets.

Gásadalur hike

Until 2004, Gásadalur was the most isolated village on Faroe Islands. It was not connected to the rest of the island by a road, so in order to travel to and from the village, people had to take the path over the mountains. In fact, that’s how the mail got delivered there three times a week, over the mountain pass. The population of the village was shrinking and by 2004 only 16 people remained.

We wanted to finish our visit to Faroe Islands by taking (at least partially) the road that, for centuries, was the way the villagers had made to reach civilization. We did not have enough time to make it all the way from Gásadalur to the other side of the mountain, so we decided to go up to the top and then return back the same way.

On the Gásadalur side, the hike starts near the tunnel. Just off the road, there is a small parking spot and an information board.

It is interesting that the path is completely invisible from the either the village or parking. All we were able to see while hiking up were the next couple of steps. The path is not marked (no surprise there) but very well trodden, it is just impossible to see when you look from below. It winds around in a zigzag pattern so it is not too steep. The first part is mostly grass and the last part, before the the mountain top, is mostly loose rocks. Thankfully, the weather was good — dry and windless.

When we finally got to the top, we understood that in fact, the weather was very windy, the mountain was shielding us from the wind on the way up.

It is time to say goodbye to Faroe Islands. We want to return some day and hope that day will be soon.