The most photographed village in the Faroe Islands — the Mulafossur waterfall that falls directly into the Atlantic, 16 residents, and the only village that required a tunnel to connect it to the island
Gasadalur is a tiny village on the western tip of Vagar island in the Faroe Islands — 16 permanent residents, accessible since 2004 by the 1.6km Gasadalur tunnel (before the tunnel, the village was reached only by a steep mountain path over the Eidisskard pass, the post arriving once a week by a postman who walked the path). The village's defining image is the Mulafossur waterfall — a stream from the high Vagar plateau falling 150m over the basalt cliff edge directly into the Atlantic Ocean, the village hugging the cliff below and the open sea horizon beyond. The Mulafossur is one of the most…
The Faroe Islands (18 islands, 50,000 population total) were settled by Irish monks in the 7th century and then by Norse Vikings in the 9th century; the name Faroe comes from the Old Norse 'Faereyar' (sheep islands). Gasadalur was a medieval Norse farm settlement (the village name means 'valley of the gods' in Old Norse) that survived in total isolation until the 20th century because the mountain path that was its only connection to the rest of Vagar was genuinely arduous (the postman walked it alone, carrying the mail in a backpack, once a week). The village nearly emptied in the 20th centur…