Bøur is a small village on the northwest side of Vágar, the last of the three larger islands that we were visiting. It has a population of around 75 souls. The village is first mentioned in a letter from 1350 but certainly predates that period. The church was built in 1865, but an older church existed in the village before that, but not much is known about the earlier building.
Most of the village land was owned by the king and is now national property. A story tells how the ownership passed to the king: When the settlement was very small, maybe only one household, the fire in the hearth went out. A young girl was sent to the neighbouring settlement (Sørvágur) to ask for fire. She found none at home, so she took some burning wood from the fire and turned back. But the smoke from the fire had been seen and the farmer at Sørvágur caught her and accused her of stealing the fire. And as a penalty most of Bøur became a royal property.
