History

The Faroe Islands are situated where the lines of longitude 7¡ W and latitude 62¡ N intersect. Or to be more precise: that is where Koltur is situated. Not only geographically  but also from the point of view of cultural history is Koltur a point of intersection in the Faroe Islands, and in no other place in the islands do we find such an unspoilt and rich cultural landscape from beach to mountain as on Koltur.

Koltur is one of the smallest of the 18 Faroese islands, and from the beginning there was only one farm on the island. Later this farm split up into two and in the Land Register from 1584 both farms are registered as part of the King’s Crownland, which means that the whole island may have belonged to the Episcopal Seat at Kirkjubøur from the early Middle Ages to the Reformation.

The oldest of the farms is the one Heimi í Húsi, while the other one, Norðri í Gerði, is the outlying farm, and around those two grew the two clusters of houses that are still there. Each of the farms later divided into two, so that there were four farms until recently, two at Heimi í Húsi and two at Norðri í Gerði.
Here, like all over the Faroe Islands, the land together with coastal fishing formed the basis for the settlement, but over the second half of the 20th century the islanders have moved to the bigger villages on other islands. Now there is again only one farm on Koltur.

Time has brought few changes and that is the reason why the island presents an unusually perfect picture of the old structure of society and the culture of former times.

Land

The cultivated area within the stone fences is quite big, and a considerable part of it is old arable land for grain cultivation. The field is divided into narrow strips that follow the sloping hillside for reasons of drainage. This is the biggest preserved arable land area in the Faroes and it tells of former generations’ incredibly hard toil to get the biggest possible yield from the land in an agriculture without any mechanical help. Most of the cultivated area was, however, used as grassland for haymaking, hay being the winter feed for the cattle.
The long stone fences which still surround the fields show how new land has gradually been brought under cultivation. Outside the stone fences are the uncultivated areas that constitute the rest of the island. One fence across the island divides it into the lower common lands for the cattle and the upper common lands for the sheep in the summer period. When the cattle was stabled for the winter also the lower lands could be left to the sheep.

Settlement

Heimrust is the old Faroese word for the common area which was intended for buildings, partly for habitation, partly for the necessary store rooms, angelica patches and yards. Both clusters of houses on Koltur have heimrust, and nowhere else in the Faroe Islands is it so manifest and well-preserved as in the settlement at Heimi í Húsi.

The Faroese house as it was until a few generations ago is interesting in Nordic architectural and cultural history. Just as the Faroese boat has its roots in the Viking times so the old sethouse has its origin in the long houses which the early settlers built. Even today a Faroese dwelling house is called sethús and in the prefix set we find the seats or benches which were placed along the longitudinal walls of the big common room where people of the Viking Age worked and slept. The traditional Faroese roykstova (smoke room) is a direct continuation of this old common room, a stave-built room with vertical panels following the old Norse tradition and with an outside stone wall for protection. One end of the house was usually the cowhouse, the other the best room, the so-called glassroom with windows, all of it gathered under the big protecting turf roof.

In no other place has this age-old building tradition been preserved as long and as distinctly as in the Faroes, and on Koltur there are some particularly fine examples. Besides the buildings in the two clusters of houses Koltur has the remains of old boat houses and stone houses for peat in the area about Gróthústangi. There was no peat soil on the island, so this necessary fuel was brought there by boat from the neighbouring islands.

Registration

Føroya Fornminnissavn, The Faroese Museum, has substantial material about Koltur and so has the Danish National Museum. In recent years the School of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen has made extensive measurings and research on the island.

At the same time Føroya Forngripafelag, the Museum Society of the Faroe Islands, has carried out important works to rebuild and restore some of the old buildings, especially the houses at Heimi í Húsi but also at Norðri í Gerði and on Gróthústangi.

The drawing shows the old barn at Norðri í Gerði, an example of the measurings made by the School of Architecture.

Restoration

The houses at Heimi í Húsi are protected under the Faroese Preservation Act and handed over to Koltursgrunnurin because this settlement is of such obvious cultural and historical value. The buildings at Norðri í Gerði and on Gróthústangi are also of highly interest in this connection. So these have been carefully measured as well, and that work will form the basis for future work to preserve and restore Koltur in its entirety.

The accompanying watercolours give proposals for the restoration of Norðri í Gerði, left, and the houses on Gróthústangi, top. These restorations are also a task for Koltursgrunnurin to carry out as the financial situation allows.

The Koltur Vision

The available material and the work that has so far been carried out form the basis for the Koltur Vision. The vision constitutes a synthesis of the ideas which will lead to a restoration of the island and bring new life to it while at the same time preserving what is of antiquarian an cultural value and securing the historical unity, as regards the settlement and the way the landscape was treated.

The Koltur Vision also aims at making the island more accessible to visitors, Faroese as well as visitors from abroad who would want to study the special conditions on the island. The Koltur Vision has proposals for measures to be taken to support every specific part and secure an adaption to nature and the environment.
Føroya Jarðarráð, The Faroese Agricultural Council and owner of the island, established Koltursgrunnurin, which in consultation with the authorities and other interested parties is to be in charge of the work to implement the Koltur Vision.

It will, indeed, be hard work but if we succeed, Koltur may present to us the history of building and agriculture in the Faroes from the first settlements till the present day. The island will be of great importance not only in a Faroese context, but it will be important from a Nordic point of view. It will be possible to see all the separate parts forming a whole, from the landing and the boat houses to the settlement with sethouses, house for the drying of grain, store houses, gardens and, beyond the settlements, the cattle paths, the stone fences, the arable land, the grass fields and the uncultivated mountain slopes. All this as a part of a magnificent nature with a rich bird life and a profusion of flowers.

A whole island near the centre of the Faroe Islands, yet preserved in all its parts as an unbroken whole up till our time.

If we succeed, Koltur will be a unique place in the North and maybe even in the World.

Other pictures: pictures