Faroe Islands Coastal Hikes

Overview

Eighteen islands of black basalt and green grass rising from the North Atlantic between Norway and Iceland — the Faroe Islands are a landscape of extremes: vertical sea cliffs, waterfalls that fall into the ocean, and a light that alternates between the grey of continuous cloud and the extraordinary gold of a North Atlantic break. In summer, the islands are walkable in a way they are not at any other time, and the path network connects the villages in a system of old post roads and shepherd tracks that predate roads entirely. Six days covers the essential circuits: Trælanípa and the lake that drains directly into the sea (one of the most photographed viewpoints in the Faroes, but genuinely dramatic rather than merely photogenic), the cliffs of Beinisvørð at 470m above the open Atlantic, the Múlafossur waterfall at Gásadalur falling from the cliff edge into the sea below, and the Slættaratindur ascent — the highest point at 882m — with views to five islands on a clear day. The villages are extraordinary: grass-roofed houses on turf platforms at the cliff edge, fishing boats in the grass-lined harbours, and a sense that the 20th century arrived but was absorbed rather than transformative. In Saksun, the village of a dozen houses in a tidal lagoon looks unchanged since the Norse sagas. The Faroese have a word, søvnur, for the particular type of atmospheric melancholy the islands induce — an untranslatable combination of wonder and longing. You will understand it by day two.

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