Kalsoy, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 2022

Date: 9th July 2022

Travelled: 40 kms Eysturoy to Borðoy, then ferry to Kalsoy 

Visited: Klaksvik on Borðoy, Trøllanes and Mikladalur on Kalsoy  

Stayed: Camping Mikladalur, DKK200, N62.33360, W06.77080 

Budget: 45 days @ €96 per day

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After a relativley quiet night in Fuglafjørður we wake to some blue sky and a sun. The wind has dropped and it’s pleasantly mild outside. We chat to our Swiss neighbours for a while enjoying the morning. They tell us about their travels to Australia in 2019 and spending 6 month touring in a rented motorhome.

So we say our goodbyes and make for the road once again. We backtrack about 10 kms, fill with fuel at DKK13.4, then turn north into the Leirvíkartunnilin (2.2 km tunnel) through the mountain to Leirvik. Following the road we then pass into the Norðoyatunnilin (6.2 km under sea tunnel) which links the island of Eysturoy to the island of Borðoy. We emerge on the outskirts of Klaksvik.

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We drive straight down to the port parking the Hymer in the ferry queue. As it’s Saturday the schedule is reduced so we have a couple of hours wait. We lock up the Hymer and head off for a walk, about 100m later it suddenly starts to drizzle quite heavily. Luckily there is a pop-up chipper in the car-park so we get a takeaway fish and chips in lieu. Pretty good as it happens.

The time passes quickly enough and we squeeze onto the ferry (DKK200 return) to Kalsoy.

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Trøllanes, Norðoyar sýsla, Faroe Islands

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Kalsoy is a long mountainous island, whilst it has 4 villages, it has no shop. It does have a small campsite which we’ll discover later. It has a couple of points of interest but we’ve come here like most people do, to walk the Kallur Lighthouse. The walk starts from Trøllanes on the far northern tip of Kalsoy.

The drive to Trøllanes takes about 30 minutes from the port. There are 4 tunnels to negotiate as we head north. They vary in length from 600m to 2200m and have no lighting. As the tunnels are only 3m wide they are an adventure in themselves.

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Arriving in Trøllanes we find a little drizzle in the air, but the wind is relatively light and from all accounts the Kallur is not a walk to be done in strong winds. Given the weather forecast in the Faroes is the same everyday, 80% chance of rain, we give it a go. Google tells us it’s a 90 minute walk, plus time on the top.

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The walk is a constant up hill slog for 45 minutes. Wet, muddy at times the track is a myriad of tracks and you just keep making your way up as best you can. There is always another sheep to take a picture of if you need a break.

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Eventually arriving at the ridge you can understand why it’s not recommended on windy days. The 200m across the ridge top to the lighthouse does have some exposure, particularly the last 100m as you can see. We are not surprised to see several people get to the ridge and then walk back down rather than walk across the ridge top to the actual lighthouse.

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The lighthouse done we walk back down to the village, which is pretty well as hard as going up on my knees.

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Back down in Trøllanes we have a walk around the village which has little of interest other than the church yard. The church yard was consecrated in 1835, but no church was ever built and the plot was used as a burial ground.

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So Trøllanes is done, we drive back through one tunnel to the campsite at Mikladalur. Once set up at the campsite (by ourselves once again) we take in the view and relax after a long hot shower using the facilities which are excellent.

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As there’s no other option, we enjoy dinner in the Hymer, the view out the window is something to remember.

In the morning we walk down into Mikladalur finding the village is myth central. Marjun’s story is sad enough, but the Seal Woman takes some patient reading and I’m wondering why it hasn’t been made into a feature length movie.

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As it was Sunday morning the church was open, but a service was in full swing, so we didn’t feel it was appropriate to take a picture inside.

As we started to walk back we could hear an odd rumbling sound, looking around to find a water wheel driven by the passing stream, spinning at one end of a turf covered structure. Couldn’t see what it was driving but it sounded important.

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Anyway that’s Mikladalur and Kalsoy done, we service the Hymer once again and make for the ferry back to Borðoy.

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Michael + Pam