Gásadalur is a tiny hamlet with only 13 inhabitants as of 2023. Until 2004, when a tunnel was built between Bøur (see earlier post) and Gásadalur, it wasn’t possible to reach Gásadalur by car. A footpath would have taken you from Bøur on a steep climb across mountains at 400 metres altitude and than down again to Gásadalur.. The postman did this several hours long trek twice a week to deliver post and the inhabitants had to do the same to reach any form of civilisation and that caused the depopulation of the village. It was an expectation that the tunnel would stop the depopulation, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case.
Gásadalur, the valley of the geese, was probably named so because of the wild geese living in the valley. We visited it twice, once when the snow had just fallen, and then a second time when the snow had melted away. Although it has only 13 inhabitants now, there are 25 houses in the village, so it had obviously harboured a much larger population earlier.
Through the village runs a stream that empties straight out into the sea via a spectacular waterfall of around 100 feet. It is called Múlafossur, which can be translated as the promontory waterfall.
When Jennifer and I walked back from Múlafossur to our car, we were eclipsed by a spectacular rainbow from Árnafjall to Eysturtindur (the peak to the east). And as we had the sun right behind us I got the shadow of myself nicely framed by the rainbow. The only image of me on this journey to the Faroes! But although we searched a lot we didn’t find the pot of gold at any of the mountains. But maybe we didn’t search enough?
