Koltur – (Video) – (Summer)

Koltur is an island in the Faroe Islands, located to the west of Streymoy and to the north-west of Hestur. The name ‘Koltur’ means ‘colt’, in contrast with the name of the larger island to the south-east, ‘Hestur’, which means ‘horse’.
The island has just one settlement, Koltur. It was abandoned in the 1980s by the sheep-farmers whose flocks grazed on the southern part of the island. Since then only two people have returned (in 1994).
Koltur has two mountains, Kolturshamar (478 m) and Fjallið (101m) which strictly speaking is not a mountain, the name however translates directly as “The Mountain” and is considered by many as the smallest mountain in the country.

The island supports 160 adult sheep.

Archaeological excavations have found that barley has been cultivated on the island as far back as 800–900AD, in the early Viking age. It continued to be cultivated up to near modern times, as straw from Koltur was considered the best
for thatching, because there are no mice in the island to diminish the quality of the straw. All peat for fuel had to be cut at Syðradal and Fossdal on Streymoy or later in Skopun, Sandoy, and then transported by boat back to Koltur where it was stored in houses at Gróthústanga.

There have been two settlements on the islands, Heima í Húsi and Norðuri í Gerði. There is a story that the two families who lived there couldn’t agree about anything and never helped each other with anything, this went on for generations and
in the end, it was forgotten what the original argument was about. Though the place-name Trætumørkin, hints at the argument being about a parcel of land.

Heima í Húsi is the older settlement and it is thought it is the original settlement on the island. It contains two farms: Niðri í Húsi and Uppi í Búð,
The buildings are remarkably well preserved, and although they have had running repairs through the centuries there has been very little modernization compared to the rest of the country, and thus give a great insight into how people have lived in the past.

Norðuri í Gerði is newer than Heima í Húsi, but its old buildings are in much worse condition. Though in the Jarðarbókini from 1584 it is confirmed that this settlement already had been built by then. This is the location of the only inhabited house today.