24 Aug 2026
A Summer Cruise to Iceland and the Faroes, Part 1: Faroe Islands
A cruise to Iceland had been my dream for years (I don't like the idea of driving on gravel roads in a rented car; and lodging/food in Iceland won't be much cheaper than a cruise). This year finally everything fell into place and I could fulfill that dream. I found a small ship with only 500 passengers that had more stops in Iceland than any other tour, with two additional ones on the Faroe Islands. She also could get into harbours that are too small for the big cruise monsters.
Coastline on the Faroes
The land area of the Faroe Archipelago (18 main islands and about 760 skerries and rocks that are not inhabited) encompasses 1,393 km2, with a population of about 50,000. Fishing industry is the most important, counting for 90% of the country's exports. Tourism is increasing, but the islands are still a less well known destination than Iceland. We spent two days on and between the Faroes, which led to a nice, if sometimes rainy, photo booty, some of which I'll use to illustrate a bit of information about the islands.
Faroe impressions (you see what I said about the rain)
Politically, the Faroes are an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark; they are self governing, except for defense and justice, and with but partial control of foreign affairs. They are – contrary to Denmark – not part of the EU, but keep autonomy over their fishing waters. The people speak their own language which is related to Icelandic, though many have English and Danish as well.
Vágur, Faroes
The first stop was Vágur on Suðuroy, the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. There has been a settlement since the 14th century because the Vágsfjørður offers a good natural harbour (nice for our smaller ship; the big cruise monsters could not get in). Most of the industry of the town centers around textile production – the Faroes having lots of sheep – and fish (fish factories and salmon farms). There is little other industry, and most of the land is not suitable for agriculture.
Vágur, another view
An interesting feature is the forest above the town which has been growing since 1956. Forests are not natural to the islands, except for arctic birches and some willow species that grow low, more like shrubs, but those have mostly been eaten by the sheep in the Middle Ages. But some tree species will thrive in certain spots. You can see a bit of the forest to the right of the photo.
The 469 metres high Beinisvørð coast formation on Suðuroy, Faroes
The Faroes are of volcanic origin dating back to about 60-55 million years ago, at the time when the Eurasian and the Laurentian plate (with Greenland) began to separate, and the North Atlantic Ocean opened. The volcanos erupted many times with different violence, leading to layers of basalt, intersperced with layers of sandstone and tuff (which tends to crumble, so that many basalt layers only show a small fissure between them), especially well visible in the coastal cliffs. During quiter phases, tropical vegetation could take hold that became coal over the time.
Basalt cliffs on Streymoy, northern Faroes
Only part of the basalt and sediment layers that built the Faroes, the Faroe-Rockall Formation (about 294,000 km2), is above sea level today; the basis is several kilometres thick, but it sank down due to erosion. The plateau also has a north-west to south-east inclination, so that most rivers run in that direction.
Geochemical analyses of the Faroenian basalt have shown that it is Precambric (ca. 540 million years ago), brought up from the same formation that underlies, among others, the bedrocks found in Greenland and Scotland.
Cliff with escarpment
The archipelago moved away from the active volcanic spot – the place is now taken by Iceland – therefore the volcanos on the Faroes are no longer active.
An important step that shaped the islands were the large glaciers of the Ice Ages (beginning 2.4 million years ago) when ice covered the entire archipelago. As the glaciers retired, they moved along the inclination and formed the typical trough shaped valleys and fjords. Glaciers are also the reason why many mountains on the Faroes are flat-topped table mountains.
The coast is affected by the surf which can rise up to 15-20 metres during storms, eating away even the basalt, forming caves and solitary pillars.
Mulafossur waterfall, Suðuroy
The Faroes are close to the Gulf Stream which leads to a subpolar oceanic climate with cool summers and mild winters, and lots of rain all year round. All that rain has to go somewhere, so the islands are cut by a maze of rivulets, runnels and brooks many of which include waterfalls. Some of those empty directly into the ocean like in the photo above. Being north of the Shetlands, the Faroes experience a 'simmer dim' twilight in summer and very short days in winter.
Example of a trough valley: Kollafjørður on Streymoy
For a long time, boats and walking/riding were the only means of transport, but today, there is a system of roads, several of the main islands are connected by bridges and tunnels, and some of the mountain passes have been replaced by tunnels as well (the longest is 11 km, including a roundabout) which are safer. But you still can get from Suðuroy to the northern islands by ship only.
Another island – grass sticks wherever it finds a crumb of earth
Minor attempts at settlement on the Faroes were made by Irish monks about 625 AD, though traces point at presence of humans already mid-4th century AD. The first settlers from Norway reached the archipelago in the 9th century, according to the Færeyinga saga, a 13th century text that is only preseved in the Flateyjarbók manuscript collection from the 14th century. The sagas are not exact sources, but nevertheless present the gist of events.
At the time Harald Fairhair (reg. 877-930) attempted to establish a more centralised kingdom in Norway, which drove a number of families off to Iceland and the Faroes. The settlers were not only of Norwegian origin but also came from the Norse-dominated Scottish Isles; there is a Celtic element in the genes of the Faroese people.
Tórshavn, capital of the Faroes; the old town on the Tinganes peninsula
There was an annual thing on the Tinganes peninsula (today part of Tórshavn, see below) since ~850, first called Althing; since the 14th it was the Løgting, a designation still used by the Faroese parliament today.
Sigmundur Brestisson, an influential man on the Faroes who had spent some time in Norway and received baptism, introduced the Christian faith on a thing meeting in 999, and was promply murdered by his rival Tróndur i Gøtu in 1005. A few years thereafter, Olaf II Haraldsson aka Olaf the Saint (reg. 1015-1928) Christianized the islands for good. It was also the end of Faroeian independence; the archipelago became a Norwegian fief.
Kirkjubøur, St.Olaf's Church (left) and remains of Magnus Cathedral (right)
We passed the Faroes' most important historical site, the village of Kirkjubøur. During the Middle Ages, the village was the episcopal residence for the Diocese of the Faroes and the spiritual centre of the islands. The village once had about 50 houses, but part of it was washed away in a storm in 1602. The remains of the Magnus Cathedral date to 1300, the St.Olaf's Church is even older, going back to the 12th century. It is still in use.
Beinisvørð cliffs, another angle
In the centuries to follow, the Faroes' history was affected by the shifting alliances, strifes for dominance, and internal struggles of the kings of the Scandinavian countries. First a Norwegian fief, then basically a Danish colony, part of the trade network of the Hanseatic League, later exploited by Danish merchants who held a trade monopoly, the Faroes played a role despite their remote location.
The Løgting lost its independence in the 16th century; a reeve was sent from Denmark instead of elected at the thing. In 1816, the Løgting was terminated and the Faroes officially became a county (Amt) of Denmark.
Coast at Suðuroy
In 1537, the Reformation which had taken hold in Denmark, also reached the Faroes. Since it was Danish – which was the native tongue of church and government officials – that replaced Latin as written language, the Faroese dialects were mostly reduced to oral situations. It would take until the 18th century for linguists to start assembling collections of those dialects and develop a written language with a standard orthography, the Hammershaimb orthography which came into use in the 19th century and is still used – with some minor changes – until today.
Another cliff on Suðuroy, veiled by the rain
The Danish monopoly on trade was lifted in 1856. The now open markets gave a boost to the fishing industry, and the Faroes developed from an agrarian society to a modern nation with a florishing fishing industry within 50 years.
WW2 proved advantageous for the Faroes. They were peacefully occupied by Great Britain after Germany had conquered Denmark, in order to prevent Germany taking over the Faroes as well and use them as base in the northern Atlantic. The Løgting found itself independent from Danish interference and proved that the Faroes could well govern themselves. There was no way the archipelago would again become a Danish county. The Faroes gained a substantial measure of independence with the Autonomy Law in 1948 (see also above).
A road on Streymoy
Some fun facts: The Brits didn't want the Faroese ships to fly the inimical Danebrog, so the people finally had a chance to officially use the Merkið flag which had been designed by Faroese students in Copenhagen in 1919, but not been acknowledged by the government. Today, it is the official flag of the Faroes.
The Faroes are member of the NATO. When the Brits were allowed to set up a radar station on the Mjørkadalur mountain on Streymoy in 1959, they built the first road on the Faroes, leading from Tórshavn to the mountain. It was the beginning of a road net on the isles.
Tórshavn, old houses on the Tinganes peninsula
We arrived in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroes, in the evening. The town is located on the east coast of Streymoy, one of the northern islands. The city has a population of about 14,220 and the greater urban area of 22,450, that is almost half the population of the entire archipelago.
As mentioned above, the Faroese parliament was established here in about 850 AD. The town itself is first mentioned in a source dating to 1075, making it the oldest capital in northern Europe (besides London). I had the chance to stroll the lanes of the old town and take a bunch of photos of pretty old houses, which will get their own post.
Tórshavn, the harbour
Ours is the smaller ship; the big one is of the Viking Cruise Fleet.
We stayed overnight and used the next day to explore the town and the surroundings. Then it was off to Iceland.
A cruise to Iceland had been my dream for years (I don't like the idea of driving on gravel roads in a rented car; and lodging/food in Iceland won't be much cheaper than a cruise). This year finally everything fell into place and I could fulfill that dream. I found a small ship with only 500 passengers that had more stops in Iceland than any other tour, with two additional ones on the Faroe Islands. She also could get into harbours that are too small for the big cruise monsters.
The land area of the Faroe Archipelago (18 main islands and about 760 skerries and rocks that are not inhabited) encompasses 1,393 km2, with a population of about 50,000. Fishing industry is the most important, counting for 90% of the country's exports. Tourism is increasing, but the islands are still a less well known destination than Iceland. We spent two days on and between the Faroes, which led to a nice, if sometimes rainy, photo booty, some of which I'll use to illustrate a bit of information about the islands.
Politically, the Faroes are an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark; they are self governing, except for defense and justice, and with but partial control of foreign affairs. They are – contrary to Denmark – not part of the EU, but keep autonomy over their fishing waters. The people speak their own language which is related to Icelandic, though many have English and Danish as well.
The first stop was Vágur on Suðuroy, the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. There has been a settlement since the 14th century because the Vágsfjørður offers a good natural harbour (nice for our smaller ship; the big cruise monsters could not get in). Most of the industry of the town centers around textile production – the Faroes having lots of sheep – and fish (fish factories and salmon farms). There is little other industry, and most of the land is not suitable for agriculture.
An interesting feature is the forest above the town which has been growing since 1956. Forests are not natural to the islands, except for arctic birches and some willow species that grow low, more like shrubs, but those have mostly been eaten by the sheep in the Middle Ages. But some tree species will thrive in certain spots. You can see a bit of the forest to the right of the photo.
The Faroes are of volcanic origin dating back to about 60-55 million years ago, at the time when the Eurasian and the Laurentian plate (with Greenland) began to separate, and the North Atlantic Ocean opened. The volcanos erupted many times with different violence, leading to layers of basalt, intersperced with layers of sandstone and tuff (which tends to crumble, so that many basalt layers only show a small fissure between them), especially well visible in the coastal cliffs. During quiter phases, tropical vegetation could take hold that became coal over the time.
Only part of the basalt and sediment layers that built the Faroes, the Faroe-Rockall Formation (about 294,000 km2), is above sea level today; the basis is several kilometres thick, but it sank down due to erosion. The plateau also has a north-west to south-east inclination, so that most rivers run in that direction.
Geochemical analyses of the Faroenian basalt have shown that it is Precambric (ca. 540 million years ago), brought up from the same formation that underlies, among others, the bedrocks found in Greenland and Scotland.
The archipelago moved away from the active volcanic spot – the place is now taken by Iceland – therefore the volcanos on the Faroes are no longer active.
An important step that shaped the islands were the large glaciers of the Ice Ages (beginning 2.4 million years ago) when ice covered the entire archipelago. As the glaciers retired, they moved along the inclination and formed the typical trough shaped valleys and fjords. Glaciers are also the reason why many mountains on the Faroes are flat-topped table mountains.
The coast is affected by the surf which can rise up to 15-20 metres during storms, eating away even the basalt, forming caves and solitary pillars.
The Faroes are close to the Gulf Stream which leads to a subpolar oceanic climate with cool summers and mild winters, and lots of rain all year round. All that rain has to go somewhere, so the islands are cut by a maze of rivulets, runnels and brooks many of which include waterfalls. Some of those empty directly into the ocean like in the photo above. Being north of the Shetlands, the Faroes experience a 'simmer dim' twilight in summer and very short days in winter.
For a long time, boats and walking/riding were the only means of transport, but today, there is a system of roads, several of the main islands are connected by bridges and tunnels, and some of the mountain passes have been replaced by tunnels as well (the longest is 11 km, including a roundabout) which are safer. But you still can get from Suðuroy to the northern islands by ship only.
Minor attempts at settlement on the Faroes were made by Irish monks about 625 AD, though traces point at presence of humans already mid-4th century AD. The first settlers from Norway reached the archipelago in the 9th century, according to the Færeyinga saga, a 13th century text that is only preseved in the Flateyjarbók manuscript collection from the 14th century. The sagas are not exact sources, but nevertheless present the gist of events.
At the time Harald Fairhair (reg. 877-930) attempted to establish a more centralised kingdom in Norway, which drove a number of families off to Iceland and the Faroes. The settlers were not only of Norwegian origin but also came from the Norse-dominated Scottish Isles; there is a Celtic element in the genes of the Faroese people.
There was an annual thing on the Tinganes peninsula (today part of Tórshavn, see below) since ~850, first called Althing; since the 14th it was the Løgting, a designation still used by the Faroese parliament today.
Sigmundur Brestisson, an influential man on the Faroes who had spent some time in Norway and received baptism, introduced the Christian faith on a thing meeting in 999, and was promply murdered by his rival Tróndur i Gøtu in 1005. A few years thereafter, Olaf II Haraldsson aka Olaf the Saint (reg. 1015-1928) Christianized the islands for good. It was also the end of Faroeian independence; the archipelago became a Norwegian fief.
We passed the Faroes' most important historical site, the village of Kirkjubøur. During the Middle Ages, the village was the episcopal residence for the Diocese of the Faroes and the spiritual centre of the islands. The village once had about 50 houses, but part of it was washed away in a storm in 1602. The remains of the Magnus Cathedral date to 1300, the St.Olaf's Church is even older, going back to the 12th century. It is still in use.
In the centuries to follow, the Faroes' history was affected by the shifting alliances, strifes for dominance, and internal struggles of the kings of the Scandinavian countries. First a Norwegian fief, then basically a Danish colony, part of the trade network of the Hanseatic League, later exploited by Danish merchants who held a trade monopoly, the Faroes played a role despite their remote location.
The Løgting lost its independence in the 16th century; a reeve was sent from Denmark instead of elected at the thing. In 1816, the Løgting was terminated and the Faroes officially became a county (Amt) of Denmark.
In 1537, the Reformation which had taken hold in Denmark, also reached the Faroes. Since it was Danish – which was the native tongue of church and government officials – that replaced Latin as written language, the Faroese dialects were mostly reduced to oral situations. It would take until the 18th century for linguists to start assembling collections of those dialects and develop a written language with a standard orthography, the Hammershaimb orthography which came into use in the 19th century and is still used – with some minor changes – until today.
The Danish monopoly on trade was lifted in 1856. The now open markets gave a boost to the fishing industry, and the Faroes developed from an agrarian society to a modern nation with a florishing fishing industry within 50 years.
WW2 proved advantageous for the Faroes. They were peacefully occupied by Great Britain after Germany had conquered Denmark, in order to prevent Germany taking over the Faroes as well and use them as base in the northern Atlantic. The Løgting found itself independent from Danish interference and proved that the Faroes could well govern themselves. There was no way the archipelago would again become a Danish county. The Faroes gained a substantial measure of independence with the Autonomy Law in 1948 (see also above).
Some fun facts: The Brits didn't want the Faroese ships to fly the inimical Danebrog, so the people finally had a chance to officially use the Merkið flag which had been designed by Faroese students in Copenhagen in 1919, but not been acknowledged by the government. Today, it is the official flag of the Faroes.
The Faroes are member of the NATO. When the Brits were allowed to set up a radar station on the Mjørkadalur mountain on Streymoy in 1959, they built the first road on the Faroes, leading from Tórshavn to the mountain. It was the beginning of a road net on the isles.
We arrived in Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroes, in the evening. The town is located on the east coast of Streymoy, one of the northern islands. The city has a population of about 14,220 and the greater urban area of 22,450, that is almost half the population of the entire archipelago.
As mentioned above, the Faroese parliament was established here in about 850 AD. The town itself is first mentioned in a source dating to 1075, making it the oldest capital in northern Europe (besides London). I had the chance to stroll the lanes of the old town and take a bunch of photos of pretty old houses, which will get their own post.
Ours is the smaller ship; the big one is of the Viking Cruise Fleet.
We stayed overnight and used the next day to explore the town and the surroundings. Then it was off to Iceland.
