The Evening Hill Diaries: February 2016

The Faroe Islands

“In the stormy seas, and the living gales,

Just to earn your daily bread you’re faring

From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands

As you hunt the bonny shoals of herring”

Ewan MacColl – The Shoals of Herring

I have always 'needed' to go and visit the Faroe Islands. Just like a photograph in my school geography book set me off sailing to the Lofoten Islands; singing that song at folk clubs over the years, the myth of the Faroes seeped into my soul. Glimpses of the islands filmed for the ‘Coast’ series of the BBC finally forced me into making the journey. After an interval of seven months since our visit, when we had what my wife would describe of one of our worst ever holidays, I’m forced to disagree, and to say that the place still has me in thrall. Of course it had its misery moments – it allegedly rains 360 days out of 365 in the Faroes, and our experience of rain at some part of every day was not therefore unique – and one has to fly to Denmark first to get there – but the islands are indeed spectacular, and if you want to get away from it all then the Faroe Islands are the place for you.

Flying on Atlantic Air up from Copenhagen (one flies first from London for two hours in the wrong direction, and then two hours back, but a bit further north), the first inkling that all was not calm, sweetness, light and sunshine came as we descended into the cloud and began to get a severe buffeting. Although only a modicum of people travel each day, at least there is a rather solid Airbus around you. Just how solid it needed to be we were about to find out…

Rattling down out of wisps of cloud the first indication of the storm around was the sight of the sea covered in white horses. Glimpses of jagged rocks and mountains shrouded in wind-whipped clouds began to show that land was near, and eventually we flew down below the surrounding ridges of the mountains on either side and with white knuckles on all hands we touched down by stages and yawed and veered our way down the runway.

In the small arrivals hall, the Captain, a grizzled greying Dane with icy blue eyes admitted that the landing was not out of the ordinary. ‘Ja it gets windy here in the fjord’ he said. The runway is 120˚ and the wind was northeast at 70˚.

How to describe the landscape in the Faroes? The nearest I can offer is that it’s like Scotland on steroids. Narrow ridges leading to snowcapped peaks fall steeply into the sea. Most of the slopes, no matter how steep, are covered with green grass. This can be misleading and dangerous as we once stumbled down a mountain, thinking that the grass would be safe. It’s so steep in places that you almost feel you need to cut steps with an ice axe. Uncrowded is another good description. In our one and half hour drive to Gjogv, our residence for the next five nights I think we saw about a dozen cars, and only one in the twelve miles after turning off the main inter-island road.

Rather than a detailed description, here are the highlights:

· Spectacular coastal walking, with hills, cliffs and mountains generally on a vaster scale than the UK

· Fascinating bird life, skuas, oystercatchers, plovers, gannets, puffins, eider ducks, turnstone, arctic terns, whooper swans, etc

· Emerald islands, with snow capped peaks, even in June

· Waterfalls everywhere, the result of all that rain

· Friendly helpful people

· Beautiful but simple old wooden buildings and churches

· Storms and seascapes writ large

· A feeling of remoteness, being close to nature, and peaceful isolation

Disadvantages:

· Rain. Have you ever wondered where all those depressions on the weather forecasts end up? Correct, roughly half way between Scotland and Iceland (62˚ N and 7˚ W)

· Temperature. Rarely more than about 12degC.

· It takes a long time to get there and is comparatively expensive because of the double flights. There are two flights a week from the UK – from Edinburgh. There are ferries which link Torshavn with the outside world but seas are generally rough. A friend sailed a 70 foot vintage pilot cutter from the Shetlands with about 15 others. Only three people on the voyage were not seasick, and it turned out that most of the crew were in fact professional fishermen… You have been warned!

· Like Scandinavia, alcohol is expensive

· Accommodation is generally basic

· Surprisingly, the fish offered on the menu is rarely plentiful and rarely extensive. Forget about crab, lobster, shellfish – it doesn’t seem to feature commonly on menus. There is extensive fish (salmon) farming in the cold and unpolluted waters of the fjords, but most of it is apparently sold to Russia. This is something to do with being (sort of) outside the EU and therefore not being required to take economic sanctions against Russia.

And here are some photographs…