Skopun (Settlement) – Trap The Faroe Islands

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur

View from the aft deck of the liner *M/F Teistin* across Skopunar Port. The ferry was a major advance for development on Sandoy and, together with the construction of the Gamlarætt ferry berth, it made the daily commute between Tórshavn and Sandoy possible. ÓLAVUR FREDERIKSEN, 2019

Skopun is a new settlement village established in 1833, which currently has 454 inhabitants. It is located in Sandur’s outfield and has no rights in the outfield or infield. The cultivated areas in and around the village have no markatal, but are cultivated plots of land.

The houses in the oldest part of the village stand close together and without any town plan, while the newer quarters are characterised by higher degree of planning.

The first road between two Faroese villages was built between Sandur and Skopun in 1917. The oldest harbour facility is from 1925, expanded in 1965 and again more recently. The village used to be connected to Tórshavn by boat, but in 1992, a car ferry service was established between Skopun and the newly established Gamlarætt ferry terminal at Kirkjubøur, from which there is also a connection to Hestur.

In Skopun, people have primarily lived by fishing; of the three former fish filleting factories on Sandoy, only the factory in Skopun remains. A change of ownership in 2019 has led to modernisations, and the factory now employs 60 people.

Føroya Grótvirki is the only masonry of its kind in the Faroe Islands because the basalt here is of a good quality and suitable for polishing. The masonry produces tiles and tombstones and is part of the international quality network ÉCONOMUSÉE.

The church in Skopun was built in 1897. It is made of stone with a corrugated iron roof, whitewashed on the outside and painted on the inside. It was rebuilt and expanded in 1961.

The Pentecostal Congregation and the Home Mission, both of which have many followers in Skopun, have their own meeting houses, both built in 1953.

The village’s first school was opened in 1884, and the current school was built in 1945 and has since been expanded several times, most recently around the year 2000. The school teaches the youngest classes, after which the pupils continue at the central school in Inni í Dal between Skopun and Sandur.

The dance hall, which was built by the youth organisation Samljóð in 1924, has the oldest theatre stage in the Faroe Islands. Until 1991, when the youth organisation built a new village hall, it was where much of the social life in the village took place. The old hall was taken over by the municipality and now serves as a local museum. Around 2015, the world’s largest mailbox was built next to the youth centre, which was supposed to receive letters for Santa Claus.

In the northern part of the village, a memorial by the sculptor Hanus Kamban was erected in 1954 to commemorate people who have perished at sea or in the mountains.

Politician Peter Mohr Dam, longtime leader of Javnadarflokkurin (the social democratic party), was born in Skopun.

Further reading