Øravík – Vágur
Bus route 700 runs from Sumba, Vágur and from Tvøroyri trough Øravík. Bus route 703 runs from Fámjin and Froðba.
First, walk about 100 m in Øravík along the road to Fámjin. There is a path to the left. Nearly 200 m down the path, you come to an outfield gate. From here, you can see where the path goes up to Mannaskarð.
The path continues by Tinggil Uppi Millum Stovur, where the men from Suðuroy held their “Thing” in the old days. Here, the scenery has a character of its own, there are gullies with high peaked ridges on the sides. Also found here is the “Thing table”, where the story says that the farmhand Snæbjørn in Hvalba was sentenced to four years in a labour camp in
Bremerholm Copenhagen for having bought scarves for his true love from a smuggler’s boat. Snæbjørn was, dissatisfied with the sentence and intended to kill the judge, but instead, he hit the sheriff so hard that he died. He escaped from the “Thing” place and lived a long time outlawed in various places in the cliffs in Suðuroy.
It takes some time to walk from Tinggil up to Mannaskarð. The last stretch up is stony. Be careful not to dislodge stones.
There is an excellent view from Mannaskarð over Dalurin by Vatnsnes and Bessavatn.
At Vatnsnes, the electricity corporation built a dam and drilled a tunnel in the 1960s, which goes from Vatnsnes and down to Botnur. They breed salmon and trout in the lake.
You can also see the mountain ridges, which at the south starts with Vágfelli. Then comes Vágsskarð, where this path also, goes and Hvannafelli. On your right, you have Borgarknappur, a mountain where the top resembles a castle from the middle ages.
Four municipalities have boundariesat Borgarknappur – Hov’s, Porkeri’s, Vág’s and Fámjin’s municipalities.
The path goes between the lakes along Vatnaryggur. Here, you can see many birds. There is said to be many huldu folk here. On the left of the path, at Vatnaryggur, lies Ærgidalur. Here, The National Museum of History has excavated the ruins of a house. The valley was used as an outfield pasture (ærgi) in the Viking Age. At that time, it was normal for people to stay in the outfield pasture in the summer, looking after the cattle. There is a story about the scoundrel farmhand, Snopprikkur, who rode along this path and on towards Hvalba, followed by the farmer of Laðangarður in Sumba, whose horse Snopprikkur
daringly had stolen.
From Vágsskarð, the path gradually slopes down until it reaches Hvannadalur. From there, the descent is rather steep.
The cairns guide you down to Hvannadalsá. East of the river, some 50 m from where you cross it, there is a byrgi. It is a fenced-in piece of outfield, which was formerly used to acclimatise foreign sheep. You walk down to Vágur on the west side of the grove. Notice the remains of an old stone wall down by the river!
Bus route 700 runs from Vágur to Sumba and Tvøroyri.
Source: “Walking in the Faroe Islands” published by the Faroese Tourist Board in 2003
