Mar 26
2007
Faroe Islands
Places In The News: Faroe Islands
by Christine Bush
For EarthSatelliteMaps.com
In the Travel section of the New York Times for Sunday, March 25, 2007, you’ll find an article by Stephen Metcalf entitled Into the Mystical Unreal Reality of the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands, according to Metcalf, are “an archipelago of 18 upthrusted hunks of igneous rock in the middle of precisely nowhere, the stretch of North Atlantic halfway between Norway and Iceland.” He explains that the warm Gulf Stream waters combine with a carpet of guano from millions of seabirds each breeding season to make the islands both “oddly temperate…and oddly green”. They also remind one variously of Myst or perhaps the headquarters for some villainous character by Ian Fleming. Regardless, they’re worth a visit via Google Earth.The image shown here is of the island Litla Dimun which, according to Wikipedia, can be seen locally “from the villages Hvalba and Sandvík”. You’ll want to be sure to turn the terrain settings ON to fully appreciate the mountain of Slættirnir. As of this writing, not all of the Faroe Islands are available in sufficient resolution to see as crisply as Litla Dimun but even a virtual visit is better than locals managed for most of their history. The steep cliffs and difficult approach prevent most from making landfall here at all except in “perfect weather” and with great effort. The Skladenek brothers were supposedly the first to do so in 1844.
