Risin og Kellingin

Interesting facts

Both stacks are basalt pillars, standing about two kilometres north of Eiði beneath sea cliffs that rise to around 350 metres.

In Faroese tradition, the rock that split away at the witch's first pull is the outer summit of the mountain, known as Ytri Kollur.

The chunk that broke off the Witch in the early 20th century is popularly described as her fat belly.

In July 2013 three climbers were reported to have made the first ascent of Kellingin, the more slender of the two stacks.

In calm weather small boats can pass through the narrow sound between the Giant and the Witch.

According to a rarer local tale, the pair were a quarrelling couple whom a god turned to stone, together with their child, to end their strife.

Passengers on the ferry from Iceland see the two stacks standing off the coast as they approach the Faroes on clear days.

Why it is worth it

Off the northern tip of Eysturoy, where the sound between Eysturoy and Streymoy opens to the North Atlantic, two dark sea stacks rise straight out of the swell: Risin og Kellingin, the Giant and the Witch. The Giant, about 71 metres high, stands further out; the Witch, a little lower at 68 to 69 metres, is the sharper spire closer to the cliffs, and she stands on two legs, with daylight showing through the gap between them. On a calm day a clear channel of water runs between the pair. Seen from the shore with the headland of Eiðiskollur behind them, they are one of the most recognisable silhouettes of the Faroe Islands, and they appeared on a Faroese stamp in 1996.

The legend that named them was collected in V. U. Hammershaimb's Færøsk Anthologi of 1891. The giants of Iceland, the story goes, envied the Faroes and sent a giant and his wife to drag the islands north. They came to Eiðiskollur, the north-westernmost mountain; the giant waited in the sea while the witch climbed up with a rope to bind the islands and heave them onto his back. At her first pull the outer part of the mountain split away, and all night they strained without moving the islands, which were fixed too firmly to their foundations. Absorbed in the work, they forgot the time, the sun rose out of the sea, and they turned to stone where they stood, still gazing towards Iceland. Another version says they came for grain in a year of famine, which is why the Witch seems to carry a bundle on her back.

The sea is slowly rewriting the story. Part of the Witch broke away at the beginning of the 20th century, and Faroese geologists expect that one winter storm in the coming decades will bring her down altogether, leaving the Giant alone off the cape. It gives a visit here a certain urgency: this is a view that will not last.

Getting there

The stacks lie just north of the village of Eiði on Eysturoy, about 39 km in a straight line from Tórshavn. From Eiði a walk leads north and then east to the low cliffs facing the stacks; on a clear day there is also a fine view of them across the water from Tjørnuvík on Streymoy. The nearest airport is Vágar Airport (FAE), about 30 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Risin og Kellingin are two sea stacks just off the northern coast of the island of Eysturoy in the Faroe Islands close to the town of Eiði. The name Risin og Kellingin means The Giant and the Witch and relates to an old legend about their origins. The Giant (Risin) is the 71m stack further from the coast, and the witch (Kellingin) is the 68m pointed stack nearer land, standing with her legs apart.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Risin og Kellingin

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia