Faroe Islands Adventures - Shearing sheep in Sjeyndir
This travel log/diary is from 2021, when I was an artist-in-residence in Tjørnuvík, Faroe Islands.
Read on to learn how I was invited to go sheep shearing in an uninhabited village with no electricity.
Some context: Faroe Islands roughly translates to “sheep islands,” as there are more sheep as people there.
I had the opportunity of a lifetime on a random Wednesday evening!
I was sitting by Tjørnuvík dock enjoying the relatively warm weather when my neighbor came by on her evening walk with her dog. After chatting for a bit, she mentioned that most of the villagers would be going on their annual sheep-shearing adventure early the next morning and asked if I would like to tag along.
I immediately said yes, thinking how lucky I was not only to be in the Faroe Islands during this once-a-year event, but also to be in the right place at the right time to receive this invitation.
During my time in the Faroes, I had seen countless sheep (after all, there are more sheep than people in the Faroe Islands), but only from a healthy distance. How much more Faroese could you get than sheep shearing?
Each year, the people in Tjørnuvík visit the nearby valley of Sjeyndir to herd and shear hundreds of sheep. Sjeyndir is only accessible by hiking over the steep mountains of Tjørnuvík or by taking a boat around the northern coast of Streymoy. I chose the boat option so I could see the scenery along the way.
Once we arrived to Sjeyndir (it took about 20 minutes by boat), we disembarked on the most terrifyingly slippery rocks, since there isn't a dock. There is only one house in this valley which belongs to the residents of Tjørnuvík, and it does not have electricity.
After semi-crawling up the rocks, I had a wonderful view of the mountains, where you could see hundreds of sheep being herded towards the pens.
By the time we reached the sheep pens, the first half of sheep had been herded and were ready to be sheared.
There were about a dozen people doing the shearing, and they made excellent time during the process. I tried to stay out of their way as I met other people from Tjørnuvík and enjoyed coffee and sugary crêpe-like pancakes.
Once a group of sheep had been sheared, they were released back into the mountains, and they seemed quite happy to get away.
After several hours of sheep-shearing, it was time to head back to Tjørnuvík. I braved the slippery rocks once more before beginning the beautiful boat ride back to Tjørnuvík.
Although I did quite a bit of exploring and sight-seeing in the Faroe Islands, shearing sheep in Sjeyndir was my favorite experience, and I was so lucky to be able to participate in the ultimate Faroese activity!