Faroe Islands 2025
- Dec 27, 2025
- 9 min read
It rains in the Faroes
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there are two small island nations that are closely related. The islands were settled around the same time when disgruntled Norwegians sailed across the sea in the 9th century to escape the grievances of the Norwegian king. These Vikings made stopovers in the British Isles, bringing British women with them—whether by choice or by force. Consequently, both nations are the descendants of Norsemen and Celts.
The Vikings brought livestock with them, and while other domestic animals were certainly important, it was the sheep that kept the inhabitants alive, along with the bounty of the sea. Recent chromosomal studies on Icelanders indicate that over 80% of Icelandic men are of Norwegian descent, while over half of Icelandic women have Celtic roots. It is likely that a similar story can be told of the Faroese. However, new research suggests that the Faroese may trace their ancestry to Swedes and Danes to a greater extent than Icelanders.
The languages spoken by these two nations are of West nordic origin and are closely related. Icelanders find written Faroese easy to understand, but comprehending the spoken language is more challenging. The reason lies in the pronunciation. The Icelandic "r" sound is rolled (a trill), whereas in Faroese, it is a voiced alveolar or post-alveolar sound, similar to English. Dental fricatives, such as the sounds represented by the letters "þ" and "ð," do not exist in Faroese.
Furthermore, various aspects of Faroese grammar have become simplified. Verb conjugations are simpler, the genitive case is rarely used, and the nominative and accusative cases are always identical in the plural, to name a few examples.
It would be a crying shame not to nurture such a close kinship. That is why Guðrún and I traveled to the Faroe Islands this autumn, along with Guðrún’s brother Siggi and his wife Kristbjörg. Guðrún and I set off from Reykjavík after work on Thursday, October 8th, in excellent travel weather. However, we played it safe and bought new studded tires for the trip, even though legal tire changes were still three weeks away. That certainly turned out to be a wise move. When we reached the sign displaying weather conditions for the Öxnadalsheiði mountain pass, it simply said "Closed." On the pass, there was treacherous black ice and blizzard conditions. The road was mainly blocked due to cars that weren't properly equipped for winter travel. Nevertheless, we ventured onto the pass since we felt well-prepared, and we made it across without any trouble. We stayed the night at Tónatröð with Siggi and Kristbjörg. The following day, we drove to Seyðisfjörður, where the ferry Norröna docks. We planned to take her across the sea to the Faroe Islands.
The sailing was uneventful. There was a bit of rolling, with a maximum wave height of six meters. Fortunately, we didn't experience any seasickness and were able to enjoy having nothing to do during the twenty-hour journey. Finally, the islands rose steeply out of the ocean. We then sailed between the islands and eventually docked in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. The hotel we stayed at is called Hotel Hafnia. It’s a nice hotel in a great location in the heart of downtown Tórshavn.
We were able to explore at our own pace since Siggi’s car was with us. It can’t really be said that the Faroe Islands surprised us; much is similar to home in Iceland. The landscape is characterized by steep cliffs plunging into the sea, with towns and villages nestled into the mountainsides. This made me think of the avalanche risks back home where conditions are similar. I don't recall hearing news from the Faroe Islands regarding avalanches or landslides. The climate is clearly different in the Faroes than in Iceland. It doesn't freeze often, and snow is rare. However, it rains about 270 days a year. We certainly got to know the Faroese weather, as it was foggy and rainy every single day of our stay. Yet, this heavy dampness doesn't seem to be enough to cause fatal landslides, and avalanches are not an issue either. It can hardly be said that snow ever settles on the islands.
While Icelanders argue about tunnels, the Faroese simply dig them. This is presumably why there are 21 tunnels in the Faroe Islands compared to 12 in Iceland. Previously, the islands were connected by ferries until the Faroese looked into the Hvalfjörður tunnel and realized that tunnels were the key to improving transportation. They get to work while we bicker, dispute, and quarrel. We make plans, approve plans, write reports, research, ponder, and revise plans—but we don't actually execute anything. The first place we visited in the Faroes was Sandoy. To get there, we drove through the Sandoyartunnilin, the newest sub-sea tunnel connecting the islands. The Sandoy tunnel opened in 2023 and is nearly 11 kilometers long.
Just over 1,300 people live on Sandoy. The largest town is Sandur, with a population of approximately 660. We didn’t stop there, however, but continued driving toward Húsavík. Along the way, we saw numerous cars parked by the roadside and people walking about. "There must be some kind of festival here," we remarked, as we kept going until the road ended in a tiny, beautiful village on the eastern side of Sandoy. Only 70 residents live in this village.
Throughout the village, there were many stone-built houses, along with stone walls and enclosures everywhere. We would later see this all across the islands. It is likely that the Faroese find it easier to maintain these stone structures than we Icelanders do, thanks to their milder climate. In many places, wooden houses were built on top of stone foundations, topped with traditional turf roofs. We saw buildings like these in Húsavík and throughout the Faroe Islands.
When we headed back, the crowd by the road had grown, so we decided to find out what was going on. We followed the people down a country road, and it turned out to be the Eplafestivalin in Tröð. "Eplafest" is a potato festival, not an apple festival, held to celebrate the potato harvest. At the festival, there was very little "phone-staring" to be seen, and children weren't munching on candy as they do at every festival back home. Their treat consisted of candied apples. The weather on this first day in the Faroes was exactly as expected. It was wet, with temperatures between 11–13°C. One moment the mountains were visible, the sun shone, and a rainbow framed the landscape; the next, a thick fog rolled in, leaving almost no view at all.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at Hotel Hafnia, we drove northeast to Eysturoy. For the second day in a row, we felt bowed down with shame over the inaction and bickering of Icelanders as we drove through the recent tunnel between Streymoy and Eysturoy. Our first stop was in Norðragøta, where we came across a statue of the most famous Faroese person of all time, Tróndur í Gøtu. We continued our journey to Klaksvík, the second-largest town in the Faroe Islands. Another Faroese person well-known to Icelanders, the singer Jógvan Hansen, lived there. Klaksvík is a fishing town of five thousand people. While we didn't find much of particular note in the town itself, we enjoyed walking the path alongside the modern nursing home, observing the boats and the settlement basking in the bright morning sun.
Fuglafjörður was our next destination. The village is reasonably populated, with about 1,600 residents. It sits at the head of the fjord, surrounded by high mountains on all sides; nonetheless, it enjoys sunlight year-round. From Fuglafjörður, we drove over a substantial mountain pass to Gjógv. The road was, of course, paved and featured numerous pull-outs, making the drive easy for an Icelander accustomed to much worse conditions. The village is first mentioned in records from 1584, though it is known that the area was inhabited long before that. The livelihood of the villagers was fish—dried, salted, and sold. In other words, "saltfiskur" in Icelandic, or "klippfiskur" in Faroese.
The natural harbor entrance is truly magnificent. Boats sail through a 200-meter-long gorge (gjá), after which they must be hauled onto dry land at the innermost part of the inlet. Today, only 19 people live in the village, but in the past, 13 boats were operated from there, and the population exceeded 200. As Icelanders, we know all too well that the sea gives and the sea takes away. Near the church stands a memorial for those lost at sea. It depicts a mother sitting with her two children, gazing out toward the ocean. There, one could see that the very gorge that provided such a good harbor also took its toll.
Our next destination was the foremost historical site in the Faroe Islands, Kirkjubær. It is a small village on the southwestern side of Streymoy. The village was larger in the past; legend has it that most of the houses were washed out to sea during a violent storm in the 16th century. Kirkjubær was the seat of the bishop from the 12th century until the Reformation in the 16th century. At that time, the Patursson family took over the farm, and today, the 17th generation of the family resides there. The oldest part of the farmhouse dates back to the 11th century, making it the oldest inhabited wooden house in the world.
he church in Kirkjubær is named St. Olav's Church (Ólafskirkja). It still serves as the parish church and has done so since it was built in 1111, though very little remains of the original structure. In the Catholic era, St. Olav's served as the cathedral of the Faroe Islands. Around the year 1300, construction began on St. Magnus Cathedral, now commonly known as "The Wall" (Múrinn). Its walls still stand as a testament to great ambition, as it was intended to be one of the most magnificent churches in the Nordic countries. There is some debate as to whether St. Magnus Cathedral was ever actually completed. Today, its ruins are colloquially referred to as "The Wall."
The first photo is taken from the parking lot. St. Olav’s Church is on the right side of the image, and Roykstovan is the next building to the left of the church. Roykstovan is then shown in photo four. The second photo at the top shows the walls of St. Magnus Cathedral and Roykstovan. Photo three shows the rear view of both St. Olav’s Church and St. Magnus Cathedral.
Guðrún had taken care of booking a table for us at Angus Steakhouse in downtown Tórshavn. Naturally, we had the beef steak with whiskey sauce. The steak was expensive, but it was also excellent.
We had planned to start our final day in Gásadalur and conclude the trip by exploring the capital. However, the fog turned out to be incredibly dense, so we unfortunately had to cancel the trip to Gásadalur. Instead, we went to the Nordic House and enjoyed some coffee there. Next, we wandered through Tinganes. Along with Þingvellir in Iceland and Tynwald Hill on the Isle of Man, Tinganes is one of the oldest parliamentary sites in the world. The Vikings first gathered there around the year 900 to deliberate and hold counsel. To this day, the Faroese government is still located on the peninsula. We strolled through Tinganes at a leisurely pace and happened upon the Consulate General of Iceland. We stepped inside and met a woman there who seemed very familiar, though I couldn't for the life of me place where I knew her from. I’ve figured it out now, though.
The center of Tórshavn isn’t particularly large, even though it is home to 25% of the Faroese population. There are only about 56,000 people living in the Faroe Islands, with just over 14,000 in the capital. During our stroll through the town, we made a quick pit stop at the hotel. We exited through the back door on the first floor and found ourselves right in the backyard of the Cathedral.
Naturally, we had to take a look inside. There, we met a retired secondary school teacher who shared a wealth of information about the church’s history. When he heard us speaking to one another, he realized we were from Iceland, which sparked a conversation about the ties between our two nations. We mentioned some well-known Faroese people in Iceland, including Eyvör. It turned out that the teacher's wife was an opera singer who had personally arranged for Eyvör to study under Ólöf Kolbrún, the opera singer and wife of Jón Stefánsson, the organist at Langholtskirkja. During our travels, we had also visited Syðrugøta, Eyvör’s hometown and the former home of the aforementioned Tróndur í Gøtu.
Our final meal was enjoyed at Áarstova, located at Gongin 1 in Tórshavn. The dish we chose was the Áarstovubógvur, served with root vegetables and gravy—a succulent, slow-cooked shoulder of lamb.
The ship, Norræna, docked at Seyðisfjörður around nine in the morning, which was very convenient as it gave us the entire day to make our way home. We made one stop along the way at Beitahúsið (Feeding house) in Möðrudalur .
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