October 6 our last day on the Faroes - Streymoy and Sandoy

Sadly, today is our last day in the Faroes and what a day! It is raining with winds gusting up to 85-90kph at times but we’re not complaining because the weather has been mostly pretty good. 

The dark pink signifies the worst winds - the Faroes, that small cluster of islands, is right in that path!

In spite of terrible weather with howling gales and horizontal rain and the sea been driven into frenzied behaviour by the raging winds, we hopped into the car to go out one last time to explore. First to Kirkjubour which was once the ecclesiastic and cultural centre of the Faroe Islands. There, giving a slightly sinister profile in the grey wet day, are the rather imposing ruins of the Mururin, the gothic Saint Magnus Cathedral. The weather was simply too bleak to explore them.  We had arrived on the first Sunday of the month so the present parish church, St Olav's, was about to start its monthly service.  We kept out of the way as late comers hurtled down the mountain road to get there ‘on time’ - sort of.  

Saint Magnus Cathedral

We still had the entire afternoon to explore so we headed for the often overlooked small island of Sandoy with its black beaches and nail-biting cliff roads (which we avoided!). To get there, we had to take another tunnel under the sea between Streymoy and Sandoy. It is the newest tunnel and is a mighty 10.8km long. Like the Eysteroyartunnilin, it descends to 155m below sea level at its deepest point.  An amazing engineering feat!  The short trip to Sandoy island could have been done by ferry but the weather was simply too wild. 

The tunnel took us out of the wind and rain for a relatively brief time

Waterfalls abound

We lunched watching the frenzied sea crashing on the beach

The waterfalls were raging tumbling sheets of water

One of my ideal holiday spots - the Faroes had a few!

From sorcerers to tunnels, this is an amazing place of beauty and myth, challenges and faery people. We both have been overwhelmed with the romance and beauty of the Faroes and would love to rent a wee bothy and disappear to dream for a while. It had been a truly worthwhile visit but tomorrow we say goodbye and fly to Edinburgh for the last leg of our northern odyssey.