With tourism set to reach an all-time high in the Faroe Islands this year, travellers should seek out the archipelago’s slower roads and newly opened sub-sea tunnels.
Only minutes out of Sørvágur village on the island of Vágar in the Faroe Islands, the road crept towards a sheer verge above the ocean and I passed a signpost fixed with a distinctive sign. It wasn’t marked with any numbers or words, just the image of a bright-yellow flower on a green background. Ahead, the road zig-zagged, climbing past sod-roofed houses and a field of fidgety sheep, then vanished abruptly from sight through a dark mountain tunnel.
Road signs usually warn users about speed limits, hazards or the presence of livestock or wildlife. So it took me a moment or two to work out its meaning. The yellow flower on the sign is a marsh marigold from the buttercup family and it is the national flower of the Faroe Islands. With some of the strongest winds in Europe, no trees grow on the archipelago, so it is often this glossy buttercup, called sóljuleiðir in Faroese, that colours the grasses, ridges and clifftops.
