Tindhólmur

Tindhólmur's five jagged peaks look uninhabitable, and today they are — but a local legend explains why a place with room for a farm sits empty. The story goes that a farmer named Rasmus once lived on the islet with his family, until a giant eagle swooped down, snatched his two-year-old child, and carried it to the highest peak. By the time the mother climbed up after it, the eagle's young had already blinded the infant. Rasmus and his family left Tindhólmur for good afterward, and the peak where it happened is still named Ørnatindur — the Eagle's Peak — on Faroese maps today.

What the legend doesn't need to explain is why nobody moved back: Tindhólmur has no harbour, no flat ground worth farming at scale, and a sheer basalt face on its southern side that makes it one of the more striking silhouettes in the Faroe archipelago, especially at sunset when boat tours time their passes to catch the light. Its closest neighbours are Drangarnir, a pair of free-standing sea stacks rising straight out of the water between Tindhólmur and Vágar that have become one of the most photographed formations in the islands.

Sheep still graze there, brought over seasonally by farmers from Sørvágur who land by small boat when conditions allow — which isn't often, since the islet has no dock and getting ashore depends entirely on calm seas. For anyone without a rope and local knowledge, Tindhólmur is a place you see from the water, not one you set foot on.

Getting there

36 km from Tórshavn. Vágar Airport (FAE) is about 9 km away.