This was my very last hike in the Faroe Islands and one that I almost missed. That day I woke up to rain and wasn’t eager to go out and get drenched. After spending some time going over photos and reading about my lest leg of the trip, I finally decided to get dressed and at least head to downtown Torshavn and walk around. AS I did, I made a quick stop at the tourist office to see what they had and started talking to one of the guys there. I told him about the hikes that I had done, and he said I had covered pretty much everything I could in a week, but then he asked if I’d seen the Viking church. My eyes peeled as not only I hadn’t, but I didn’t know about it. Being a hike that starts from the edge of the city, he gave me directions and told me I should definitely go check it out. So, with this new info, I ran to my AirB&B, changed, grabbed my pack and drove to the trailhead. Lucky for me I still had hours left for the day and the rain had stopped so off I went.
At first, it was bit tricky to figure which way to go as the trail is the continuation of an old road. Once I figured that out and left the last farm house behind, I started a steady climb towards a ridge. The hike itself is very mellow. Behind you, Torshavn starts disappearing as you reach an almost flat area that the trail traverses. There are a couple of ponds and nice views towards the island of Sandoy.
About half way, I found a rock structure that looked like a throne and took a quick picture but the image of playing around and taking more picture stuck with me, so I made a mental note to stop on my way back and shoot away. More on this later. Once the trail got to the other side of the meadow, the sea below started appearing and far in the distance to my left was my destination. From my angle I was trying to identify the church but wasn’t lucky. I saw several older structures but none of them looked like what I’ve seen in the picture the guy from the tourist office showed me.
Eventually the trail took me to the farther house in Kirkjubour where I found an old boat. In the distance I could see some of the farm houses but still no church.
All the way to the coast I saw a promising structure but figured later it was an old barn as a tractor was driving to and from it moving hay
I walked thru the village and then, towards the other end, I noticed a black structure which ended up being a covered portion of the church. Before I got to it though, I noticed two or three old buildings with very bright colors and carvings which were made in the 1500.
The church itself stands in the middle of a small yard and only the walls are visible. This is not because the roof collapsed, it seems it was never built. It was quit interesting looking at the structure as well as some of the carved details on the walls and windows
Right across from the church, an old house is actually a small museum maintained by locals. The building itself dates from the 1500 and inside they have artifacts that have been kept since. It was an interesting visit with some interesting things to see
Once done checking all that out, I started my way back first saying bye to some very hairy cows.
As I mentioned above, I made a stop at the “throne” where I got my new remote, set the camera and took about 60 pictures. The result was this collage that I still use as my profile picture in social media. I had a lot of fun making this
Just as I was getting closed to the trailhead, I got my last good view of the city of Torshavn. The sun was going down and a gray cloud was hanging over it, but the view was fantastic. A good goodbye image to be kept from this amazing place
