Famjin

Fámjin is a village of around sixty people on the exposed Atlantic side of Suðuroy, and its church holds an object of national significance: the original Merkið, the Faroese flag, sewn in 1919 by Faroese students in Copenhagen and brought back here by one of them. It hangs framed on the church wall. The village sits in a green bowl with a lake behind it and a beach of black sand at the shore.

History

The church in Fámjin was built in 1875 and taken into use in 1876, and it holds the Fámjin stone, a 16th-century runestone carved in both Latin and runic letters after the Reformation of 1538, the youngest of the Faroese runestones and proof that runes were still in use so late. The church also keeps the prototype of Merkið, the Faroese flag, made in Copenhagen in 1919 by Jens Oliver Lisberg of Fámjin and fellow students; it was first flown in the islands here on 22 June 1919, at a wedding (Wikipedia, Fámjin).

What you'll find

• The original flag - the 1919 Merkid, framed on the church wall.
• The church - the small village church that holds it.
• The black sand beach - the shore at the foot of the village.
• The ridge road - the crossing from Vagur over the island's spine.

When to go

May to September is when the church is most likely open. It is often locked and a keyholder may be needed. The ridge road can be fog-bound.

Good to know

The church is frequently locked and getting in may need finding a keyholder in the village. The village is tiny with no facilities. The road over the ridge is narrow and often in cloud.

Nearby

Vagur is southeast, and Tvoroyri is northeast.

Key facts