These deliciously, cozy traditional Faroese turf houses (see image above) can be found in Bøur, a beautiful, old, scenic small village on the west-side of Vágar Island.
Tróndur Niclasen, who runs vacation rental company Útsýnið (The View), is the owner of the four houses.
Following the path of a growing number of Faroe Islanders, Mr. Niclasen rents out the houses for foreign visitors. So far he has had visitors from no less than 35 countries, including Korea, Japan, Australia and the United States of America.
“Last weekend, two of the houses were rented out, and so far it (renting out the houses) has gone very well,” Mr. Niclasen told Faroese news website VP.
He continued:
“And the other day, sheep went up on the roof, much to the delight of the foreign visitors.”
Turf roofs are traditional Scandinavian living roofs. They are fairly common throughout the Faroe Islands, and you can even find them in the middle of the bigger towns as well.
There are a number of environmental and cost benefits to having a turf house, such as reduced heating costs and longer lifespan of the roof overall. From a practical standpoint though, you now have to maintain your roof more so than modern roofs.
Image credits: Thomas Vikre/VP
