Toftir

Toftir (Danish: Tofte) is a village in Nes Municipality on the island of Eysturoy, in the Faroe Islands. It is part of a chain of villages stretching over a distance of 10 kilometres on the east side of Skálafjørður (fjord) on Eysturoy island. The highest hill in Toftir, called Húkslond, is 129 metres high, and Nes Municipality is the only area in the Faroes which has no mountains above 200 metres.

Toftir
Village
Toftir in late June 2004
Toftir
Location in the Faroe Islands
Coordinates: 62°5′20″N 6°44′8″W
State Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country Faroe Islands
IslandEysturoy
MunicipalityNes Municipality
Population
 (January 1, 2017)
 • Total793[1]
Time zoneGMT
 • Summer (DST)UTC+1 (EST)
Postal code
FO 650
ClimateCfc

The Lake Toftir area was the first area in the Faroe Islands to become a Nature reserve in the 1980s, and in 2006 Nes Municipality, in cooperation with neighbouring Runavík Municipality, joined a network of local authorities in the Nordic countries working to halt the loss of biodiversity in their local areas.[2]

History

The settlement of Toftir dates back to the landnám (settlement) period. According to local lore, only one woman survived the Black Death (1348–1350), which left the village in ruins; hence the name Toftir, meaning "ruins". The village name prior to the Black Death is said to have been Hella, meaning "slope", which refers to the gradual sloping hillside on which the village is built.

Local economy

Toftir has one major retail store with late opening hours, one café Í Hópinum, which serves liquor, and a shop, Navia which sells woollens and also souvenirs. Toftir has a relatively large harbour with a filleting plant that opened in 1969, and hosts the headquarters of Faroe Fish Market.

Fredericks Church
Frederik's Church in Nes

Fredericks Church (Fríðrikskirkjan) (CotFI) in Nes was completed in 1994 and was named in honor of Fríðrikur Petersen (1853-1917) who served as rural dean on Nes from 1900 to 1917. [3] [4]

Other local religious communities include the Inner mission which is a revivalist movement of the Plymouth Brethren and the Baháʼí Community.

Sport

The major sports venue in Toftir is the Svangaskarð, the first of its kind in the Faroe Islands. Like most Faroese settlements, Toftir used to participate in the National Rowing sport of the Faroe Islands, but ceased participating in this sport in the 1980s. The village's football team, B68 Toftir, was established in 1962 and has won the Faroese league 3 times, in 1984, 1985 and 1992.

The local swimming club Flot was established in 1984; it participates in the national swimming competitions in the islands. In 2009 a Volleyball team was established in Toftir; in 2010 the name Ternan was chosen for the team. Toftir is also home to one of the pioneering chess clubs in the islands, Tofta Talvfelag which has won the Islands' Chess Championships once. The Toftir Boat Association (Bátafelagið) was established on 13 March 2005, and two months later the first Boat Festival was held in Toftir; it is now held every year on the first weekend of May.

People from Toftir

See also

References
  1. Statistical Database of the Faroe
  2. Local contributions to meet the 2010 target to halt the loss of biodiversity, http://www.dirnat.no/content.ap?thisId=500026558.
  3. "Fríðrikur Petersen (1853-1917)". skaldskapur. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  4. "Fredericks Church". Posta Faroe Islands. January 2011. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
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