Instinctively I often think I'd like to live in such a place, I'm not quite sure though why I think that. I'm fairly sure I would in fact not after a while.
I suppose everyone in Greece knows them. :)
[0] https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/slaughter-dolp...
Edited to add: I put a handful of pics on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DO0mTX3DE1I/?img_index=1 (and some videos on my profile too). I was lucky to have sunshine almost the whole time I was there.
I absolutely love places like this; places that treat you as a discerning, rational adult. The sense of being responsible for yourself feels freeing. It is an invitation for you to experience something entirely in your own way.
Walk through most any suburban American neighborhood and you'll primarily see neutral shades of white, gray, beige, or the occasional muted blues and greens. Sometimes someone will be daring and paint their house in a deep, dark blue or purple (or even black) but that feels relatively rare.
If near the ocean, typical "seaside pastels" come into view.
What's the backstory to the Faroes' colors? Are they set by some local entity/government? Left up to the homeowners? Was there a push to make them colorful? Do the locals have a particular eye for color composition? Did someone help them?
Why are American homes so bland and the Faroes' so delightfully colorful?
So many questions!
I have always thought it came from "fjær" (far). According to Wikipedia it is debated, and it may even come from "fara" (to travel).
"Constant storms and crashing waves have sculpted the volcanic rock over millions of years into some of the most jaw-dropping (and vertigo-inducing) coastlines on Earth. These towering basalt cliffs can reach heights of over 400 meters, dropping straight into churning seas below."
OK, enough with the hard sell, what's the immigration policy?
They are killed and butchered by trained people only with specialized tools that minimize suffering, and the meat is distributed to all participants.
The developed world has more or less eradicated slavery, but it was commonplace just 0.5% ago on the human civilization timescale. Some countries eradicated it at 0.4% and others at 0.6%.
However, if you don't oppose the general consumption of meat, I don't find the argument against grindadráp compelling. It yields more meat per killed animal than most, and the slaughter itself is arguably no less humane than most commercial meat production (not a high bar, I admit).
In terms of publicity, grindadráp suffers from being inherently more visible than commercial meat production. Personally, I think this is a positive thing. It confronts you with the fact that meat doesn't magically appear in a supermarket freezer - if you want to eat meat, then by definition a living animal has to die. The visibility of grindadráp has prompted conversations with my young son about where meat comes from, and the animal welfare consequences of eating it.
Not as cruel as factory farming though. I find it weird how people obsess over grind when pigs are treated a lot worse at a hugely larger scale. Maybe the problem is it is out in the open?
Industrialized whaling has done massive damage to global whale populations, but the Faroes are tiny and (to my knowledge) their hunting practices do not have a significant ecological impact.
The only downside was that you had to pay for most of the hikes, and the money isn't actually going towards any real work getting done.
Time (and distance!) are money.
The problem with commercial meat production is pretty much always the mega-farms that have them in horrible conditions during life. It's just cheaper, easier, and results in tastier meat to quickly perform the slaughter.
Unfortunately, that also makes it inherently more dangerous. Just a month ago, three tourists went missing at that location. [1]
[1] https://local.fo/three-persons-missing-after-visiting-vagar-...
Sheep! https://photos.smugmug.com/Faroe2025/n-brbsQb/Faroeselected/...
And then companies try to push for more Halal meat, because there are fewer rules to account for, when it comes to Halal (great way for them to skirt the law, legally). The chicken supposedly tastes better, though.
And yes, there are plenty of very arguable inconsistencies (eg: eating pigs and cows is okay, eating horses is not) in how people look at animal consumption, but I don't particularly think that invalidates ethical concerns over whaling.
(edited for missing words)
Unless legislation changes, it's simply better business to let the animals suffer.
Its not consumed in same amounts as beef for sure, but its not shunned by most. And yes there is no logical reason to eat beef (especially calves if we consider the cuteness factor) but not horses, horse meat is even healtier.
This is the situation in the UK. Some people trace it back to chivalry, where horses were very expensive and mostly owned by the nobility. But I don't know if that is the real reason.
Although it turned out that British people have been eating plenty of horse. They just didn't know it:
I’m not defending the Faroese here (nor casting aspersions on them, either), more just saying that it’s your responsibility to research the customs of the places to which you travel, and to not go if you think you might not like what you see.
Alas the rest is true re costs being higher and legislation changes being required to force an industry shift.
That doesn't necessarily make every ethical boundary they try to have "virtue signaling".
There are plenty of places where it's not considered okay by a significant portion of the population, so it's a pretty valid to use it as an example of an inconsistency.
> "The squealing from the whales was horrible. They were putting hooks on ropes in their blowholes to pull them in and then hacking at them with knives."
Your culture thinks eating horse is bad, other cultures it’s fine, but beef or pork is bad.
Even dog and cat are quite common in many countries.
Whenever the Faroe Islands come up, people complain about whaling. Do people complain about factory farms any time (e.g.) France gets mentioned? No. Frankly, even as an opponent of animal agriculture, I find it a bit xenophobic.
It doesn't make the horses example any less of an example of an inconsistency.
Edit: not only that but the whole point of me bringing up inconsistencies was to say that just because they exist doesn't mean people can't have ethical concerns about whaling (or other kinds of animal hunting / farming).
It does not have to be a universal truth.
https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/agroalimentaire/la-vian... and other articles appear to agree with me.
The Faroe Islands are like the child that Denmark and Iceland had, but forgot to tell the world about. This group of eighteen small islands receives the least amount of sunshine in the world per year. Constant rain and heavy winds have always battered these lands.
Politically part of Denmark (for now) but fiercely independent in spirit, the Faroes exist in their own bubble of Nordic culture. Here, sheep outnumber humans two to one, villages of colorful houses cling to clifftops like they're holding on for dear life, and the weather can shift from apocalyptic storms to sunny calm in the space of an hour.
Situated between Iceland, Norway and Scotland, the Faroes face the brunt of the North Atlantic weather system. Constant storms and crashing waves have sculpted the volcanic rock over millions of years into some of the most jaw-dropping (and vertigo-inducing) coastlines on Earth. These towering basalt cliffs can reach heights of over 400 meters, dropping straight into churning seas below.
What's most striking is how abruptly the land stops. There are no sandy beaches or gentle slopes here—the islands simply plunge headfirst into the Atlantic. One step you're on grass-covered clifftops, the next you're staring down hundreds of meters of sheer volcanic rock to where waves explode against the base far below.
The weather here is unpredictable, and changes faster than you can put your raincoat on—one minute you're in thick fog, the next you're hit with winds and piercing rain that'll knock you sideways, then suddenly the clouds part to reveal views that'll make your camera work overtime.
Meet the true locals of the Faroes. These wooly sheep have been roaming the islands for over a thousand years, and they outnumber people on the islands. They couldn't care less about your hiking plans and will casually block paths or graze on the edge of 200-meter cliffs like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Faroe's name comes from a combination of fær (sheep) and eyjar (islands).
Unlike their farm-bound cousins elsewhere, Faroese sheep roam completely free across the islands, somehow always managing to find the most photogenic spots for an impromptu rest. This fellow right here is the only one that gave me any sort of attention. Otherwise, they are all busy grazing on all the grass they could ever ask for.
Why fight the landscape? For over a millennium, islanders have been topping their huts with birch bark and soil and let the grass grow wild. They act as insulation, and the thick roots are an excellent waterproof seal against the weather.
The grass grows quickly and does need tending every once in a while. In typical Faroese fashion, the solution is simple: put a sheep on top for an afternoon.
On the northern tip of Kalsoy lies the Kallur lighthouse. Like most regions on the islands, the land is privately owned. Hiking usually incurs a modest fee paid at the trailhead to the land owners, and the rest is up to you. Trails are just sheep paths, worn smooth by countless hooves over years rather than any official trail maintenance.
There are no guardrails, no warning signs, and definitely no liability waivers - just you, the weather, and whatever route the sheep decided made sense. The approach to Kallur is particularly gnarly, following a knife-edge ridge with steep drops on both sides before reaching the lighthouse perched dramatically on sea cliffs.
In No Time To Die (2021), Daniel Craig's James Bond meets his end at the villain's lair, which happened to be here on Kalsoy. The Faroese then followed through with the obvious next step.
