Fire and Ice: Villages, Sights and Culture in The Faroes

Monday 7 August 2017. After a day at sea, we arrive in the Faroe Islands - previously just a name on the shipping forecast. But whilst we were due to dock in the capital, Torshavn, our place was usurped by another cruise liner and we found ourselves along the coast a little way at a place called Kollafjord (Faroese = Kollafjørður).

We were on an afternoon tour and got off the ship after breakfast for a walk and to admire the reflections of waves on the bow of the Celebration. Once we set off on our walk we found a group of despondent crew members walking back to the ship. "No wifi," explained one. A serious blow to hard-working people with families thousands of miles away.

It is unbelievably peaceful here in the fjord. If it weren't for the fish factory behind us it would be ideal!

A row of boat houses belonging to people from the village of Kollafjørður just up the road. We'll be calling there later to have a look at the church.

A couple of boats with mid-boat engines are moored at the end of the row. Here they sit facing the gorgeous scenery of the fjord. The horizontal lines of exposed rock on the hillsides are the results of the movement of ice before the layers of permafrost melted after the last ice age.

Afternoon comes and we get on a coach for our excursion, head through a tunnel and get this view of the capital of the Faroes, Torshavn. It's one of the smallest capital cities in the world, but home to around a third of all Faroese people.

Our coach stops a couple of times for photo stops. No... we weren't trying to spot the Faroese Hondas, Hyundais and Skodas...

We were looking out to sea to this small volcanic - or once-volcanic - island. Faroe is dotted with these cairns that you see in the foreground. Before roads, they led the way from one village to another.

This little mobile wooden hut (look for the wheels!) had spaces between the slats and was for hanging and drying fish. And yes, the roof is covered in grass. It will not be the only grass roof we see on this trip.

Our next stop is at a village called Kvivik. The road down involves a sharp turn from the main road and because of a car wanting to turn out we have to go past and then find a place to turn the coach around before we can turn off ourselves.

We stop in a coach park up the hillside from the village which is reached by walking alongside the river. A Faroese Polperro! The river is the River Stora. This is no great expanse of water but never-the-less it is full of rocks and drops and makes for a most agreeable gurgling of water as you make your way down in to the village which clusters at the river mouth.

Not far from the car park you start to walk past houses and cars have only the path to travel down which is narrow and does not have any great protection by way of wall or strong barrier to prevent falling off into the river. If you visit, please allow cars to pass without the driver having to risk this. It's their village after all. We saw cars having to wait whilst groups walking three abreast refused to get into single file. Just rude... The church is not the original, but dates from 1903. The oldest occupied house dates from the 1700s.

Kvivik meets the sea and the River Stora flows out via a narrow channel with a high wall on one side and a mysterious curved grassy bank to the right.

This is part of the remains of a wall. There are two Viking houses here. In fact Kvivik was one of the first places in the Faroe Islands to be settled.

Another view of the Viking hut remains. On the left a small side entrance can be seen on the extreme left and the hearth, in the middle of the room where smoke from the fire would go up into the roof, helping to both seal it and keep it free from rodents. There would be a small hole for the smoke to escape through. In the right-hand hut some separation into rooms or stalls for animals can be seen. Animals would be kept inside to add their warmth to the hut.

We move on to the village of Leynar, to meet a wood turner and see his creations. We had seen grass roofs before, both in Norway and Iceland. The weight, particularly when wet, helps keep the roof rooted (sorry!) when the winter gales come. They can be left to grow long - there were plenty of examples - or can be cut by lifting a mower up ... or a sheep or goat!

The wood turner is Ole Jakob Nielsen. Only half of us fit into his workshop and we were right at the back. The smell of wood and linseed oil was intoxicating and the shower of splinters and shavings as he demonstrated his lathe made those closest shrink back a little!

Ole Jakob introduced himself and showed us how he made - of all things - light shades! In order to get light to shine through wood it has to be cut to a thickness of between 0.5-1.0 millimetres. As we were at the back we were the last out and when asked Ole Jakob immediately agreed to pose for a photograph. His unusual felt hat had been made by his daughter and the long back with the curl stopped shavings from going down his collar!

Whilst the other people from the coach came in to see his demonstration, we had a look around his gallery and shop. It's fair to say that this is not a cheap shop, but the goods are unique! We looked at the price of a lamp but it was almost four and a half times as much Danish krone as we had brought for the day. We did buy a small fruit bowl.

A rather demonic mask on the side of Ole Jakob's workshop then it's back onto the coach and a return by way of a very long road tunnel to Kollafjørður where we visit the old Lutheran church.

It is one of nine that were built between 1830 and 1850. This particular church was built in 1837. Our guide speaks about it, giving us a rendition of the Faroese National Anthem in the Faroese tongue and with quite a decent voice which earns him a round of applause.

Apparently all Lutheran churches have a model of a ship. St Gregory the Great wrote that the Church is a ship that takes us from birth to death and it has become a feature of all Lutheran churches.

Kollafjørður church has the traditional grass-covered roof. We get back onto the coach and drive back to the Celebration. Tomorrow's destination is Lerwick on the isle of Shetland.

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Wareham and the River Frome

Wednesday 25 June. From Lyme Regis we motored quite a way. Past the huge ramparts of Maiden Castle. Out towards the great natural harbour of Poole. But we stopped a little short of Poole at Wareham.

This ancient village sits on the River Frome which flows down to Poole Harbour. It was probably one of King Alfred's burghs and is one of just a very few walled towns in England where the walls are earthwork rather than stone. King Alfred (he of "the Great" and of the burnt cakes) was desperately trying to keep Saxon England er... Saxon England...

This is a view of Wareham as it would be seen by those trying to stop King Alfred from keeping it Saxon England. The Vikings. Vikings is a bit of a misunderstood term these days. A lot of people think that was the name of the people from Norway, Denmark and all points cold. It wasn't. They were Norsemen. And presumably Norsewomen... Vikings were raiders. It's what they did rather than who they were. But then those who went sailing off for a spot of raping and pillaging and looting without (here's the defining crunch) settling became known as Vikings. It probably started out as a misunderstood answer to the question:

"Hello, nice boat... what do you want?"
"We're viking!"

Anyway, Vikings began to refer to the people. They were eventually followed by Norsemen who wanted to settle. You know... no ice, lots of grass and good farmland, internationally famous benefits system...

The Norsemen also settled in Germany and what would become France where their name Norsemen became shortened to Norman and then they invaded all over again. What goes around comes around...

We were on the river on this little whaler. There actually are not all that many whales splashing up and down the River Frome, so instead of watching them we sat looking at the reeds that line the river. They were harvested for thatched roofing until there was a great fire one year. The decision was made that all rebuilding should be done with tiled roofs so to reduce the risk of fire spreading so quickly again. That had two effects.

The only thatched roofs to be seen now are outside the area devastated in the fire. And two: the reeds started to choke the river which silted up and is now unnavigable to large boats except for a short length. Stops any Vikings in their tracks now...

An old Viking longboat sitting abandoned in the river...

This is the spot from which we got on the boat. It is a lovely spot on a warm sunny day with a couple of pubs and benches. We sat and watched the boat load up again for its last trip of the day. We decided we would have a bit of a wander to look at the church and old part of the town.

We obviously wandered outside the area of the fire! This gorgeous little cottage sits facing the churchyard, with upper storey windows right up in the thatch.

It was immensely hot. We glanced, rather than looked at, the church. We admired the old blocked doorway, designed to ensure you bowed your head humbly before entering the House of God and decided we would head back to the river and find a drink.

Which we did! Cheers!

Devon & Dorset 2014 Index

John Burke's Heysham

The title of the entry was the title of a web page that I had at one time. My web pages were originally with Freeserve and survived through the takeover by Wanadoo. They finally disappeared when I moved from Orange, who took over Wanadoo to my present ISP. The page was immensely popular and so the text is reproduced here almost word for word. The photographs are, however, new and were taken especially for this reproduction of the web page.

Heysham is a tiny village on the edge of Morecambe Bay, North West England. A nuclear power station and ferry port are two modern points of interest but the village has so many old and interesting things to look at that, for a village of this size, it really is almost unfair! This is the parish church of St Peter, first consecrated in the year 976 and therefore over 1000 years old. Most of what can be seen here is younger than that, the belfry added in the 1600s, the South doorway which replaces the original Saxon doorway - still visible in the West wall. It is also obvious that the church has been expanded a few times with the nave extended and side chapels added.

There are several interesting items in the churchyard of which this sundial of 1696 is one of the youngest. However, whilst the sundial may be relatively young the material of its base is older as this was originally a Saxon cross shaft of over 1000 years ago. It must have contained carved images and the marks of the 17th Century hammers wielded by the Puritans can be clearly seen, low down on the shaft. They took to extreme the theme of not allowing worship of graven images.

Given the above it is perhaps surprising then that this Saxon cross shaft - which may be a different part of the same - was allowed to remain. The deep scrollwork and carving was done probably when the church was new. On the reverse side is a depiction of the raising of Lazarus and the three figures in the windows of the building above a swathed body in the doorway visible here are thought to depict the three Mary's visiting the tomb of Jesus.

Many visitors pass by this stone container, thinking it merely a horse trough or similar. It is however a stone coffin, thought to be that of the Norman cleric responsible for restoring a church that was old even by the time of the Conquest.

In the Southern side chapel inside the church is yet another treasure. This is a Viking "hogback" tomb cover from the 10th Century. With bears clasping each end of the stone, the carvings represent scenes from Norse sagas. It is easy to pick out this deer hunt. This is no ordinary tomb cover. This was for a chieftain or king. It is the finest example ever found in Britain.

St Peter's church was built to replace the chapel seen here which stands just above it on the hillside. By the time the Vikings raided Heysham in the 900s this chapel was already around 300 years old. They left it without a roof and the villagers, presumably too numerous anyway for this tiny chapel, decided to build the new church. The chapel was dedicated to St Patrick, who was rumoured to have been shipwrecked here in the 5th Century, on his way to Scotland after fleeing from his Roman captors in Ireland.

Close by the chapel is a row of six graves, dug with primitive tools out of the solid rock of the headland on the very edge of the cliff. Thought to date from the first half of the 11th Century, they would have been reserved for local notables. Sockets for cross shafts can be seen at the head of some of the graves.

Two more graves are uncovered at the other end of the chapel. One is obviously that of a child. The graves originally had covers over them and two are seen above in the foreground of the photo of St Patrick's chapel.

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Wareham and The River Frome

Welcome to 2009 and a new layout for photos embedded in the blog.

The majority of new PCs and laptops these days seem to have widescreen monitors and for anything over a resolution of 1024x768 the old format tended to give you overlapped placing of the photographs so from now on I'm going to centre them and so I can have a bit more control over how the blog will look on your screen.

My New Year's Resolution this year was not to post an entry on the first of January. So many people make resolutions they have no chance of succeeding in so I always make mine that bit more simple. Last year's resolution for instance was to breathe...

Anyway this year's is over and done with and I can get on with life.

These photos were taken at Wareham in Dorset in 1997 whilst we were on holiday down there, using Sidmouth in Devon as our base for the week.

Wareham is one of England's walled towns, though in this case the remaining walls are earthworks only. This is because it is one of only two Saxon walled towns and therefore they were not stone-built but presumably had somewhat formidable chunks of wood on top. They were built as defences against the Vikings whose sense of fun displayed itself as a shout of "Smile!" just as their axe swung at your head...

Today there is very little head lopping in Wareham and instead it is a lovely spot on a hot summers day to relax with a pint in the pub or an ice cream by the river just watching life around you.

Have a very Happy New Year!

Large versions of the photos: Wareham Quay, River Frome

Heysham Curiosities

One of the many web pages from my website(*) is dedicated to Heysham, a village on the edge of Morecambe Bay.

I came across the packet of negatives of the photos I used on it so I've now rescanned all except one which was a bit damaged (looked like either I'd stood on it or the cats had been at it to be honest...).

The photo used here shows a row of six graves that have been cut out of the bedrock of the headland. They date from Dark Age Britain - before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

The page has photos of many other treasures - a Norse hogsback tomb cover, the ruined chapel of St Patrick who landed here on his way to convert the Scots to Christianity, the church of St Peter, built in 976 (no I didn't miss off a figure 1 from the date!). It was built after the Vikings destroyed the smaller chapel.

Why not have a look at the web page? I get many emails from people who assume I live in Heysham, but I was just there as a day tripper.

The page has been very successful - a search in Google for "John Burke's Heysham" turns up over 100 web sites that have linked to it!

(*) The website mentioned is no longer active

Wi've Bin Up The 'Pool

We've had a day out. First one I think since we went up to Cumbria for Fran's birthday in March. It's been a busy year!

Anyway a bit of a pilgrimage; we went to Albert Dock in Liverpool and went to see the statue of Billy Fury on the waterfront just by Albert Dock.

It's a shame so many people seem to glance at it and say "Oh, look - a statue of Elvis..." without wondering why a place with such a great musical heritage would have a statue of an American singer. The place is not without it's musical greats. Billy was certainly one of those.

Then a trog around the Albert Dock itself. There's a few empty plots but that's usual in such places - sometimes I think the only people making money these days are councils from the Council Tax and landlords from extortionate rents.

Happily there are lots of cafes there. Unhappily we chose one staffed by two teenage girls who seemed to have no idea and who didn't care that they had no idea and who had a steady stream of customers bringing food back for one reason or another. Ours was ok, but I drank the coffee down in one go as soon as it came. I was thirsty - but had I left it any longer it would have been too cold!

A nice old sailing ship in the corner of the dock, flanked by several tugs and other boats.

Despite a stint as Registrar at Fleetwood's Nautical College in 1985/86, I'm no expert on types of ships I'm afraid - although, did you know that the word starboard for the right hand side of a ship as seen from the back, is so called because the Norsemen had their tiller or steorbord on their Viking ships on that side? Hey! Full of useless information, me!