Klaksvík

People have lived at Klaksvík since early times — the first settlement dates back to the Viking age — but for centuries the head of the harbour held only scattered farms and hamlets; in 1901 they had 545 people between them. The sheltered natural harbour on Borðoy gave a safe base for fishing and trade. In time the settlements grew into four villages, Vágur, Myrkjanoyri, Gerðar and Uppsalir, which were merged into the town of Klaksvík in 1938.

Fishing made the town the commercial and cultural centre of the Northern Isles, with an important harbour and a modern fleet. The brewery Föroya Bjór, a family firm founded in 1888, also grew up here. In 1963 the town consecrated Christianskirkjan, a church in a Norse style dedicated to the memory of sailors who lost their lives in the Second World War.

For most of its history Klaksvík was an isolated place, reached only by sea. That changed in April 2006, when the Norðoyatunnilin, an undersea tunnel under the Leirvíksfjørður, linked Borðoy by road with Eysturoy and so with the rest of the islands. The town became one of the key ports of the Faroes, and a new industrial park was laid out by the tunnel entrance.

Christianskirkjan is the town's best-known building and one of the most notable modern buildings in the islands. Designed by the Danish architect Peter Koch, it uses the open roof construction of the Viking halls, which survived in Faroese smoke-room kitchens and village churches. Its name honours the Danish king Christian X.

Every summer the town hosts Summarfestivalurin, the Summer Festival, a music festival founded in 2004 with plenty of musical events, usually held in August.

Football carries the town's name far beyond the islands. KÍ, the local club founded in 1904, is one of the most successful in the Faroes, and in August 2023 it became the first Faroese side to reach the group stage of a European competition after beating BK Häcken in the Champions League qualifying rounds. The volleyball club Mjølnir became the first Faroese volleyball team to compete in a European Cup the same year. As across the islands, Sunday is quiet and church and family life matter.

About 5,100 people lived in Klaksvík at the start of 2025. The town has the services of a much larger place for the whole north: supermarkets and shops, a bus station, banks, a hospital, a pharmacy and a public swimming pool.

The economy rests on the sea. The harbour is home to a fishing industry and a modern fleet, and the tunnel has turned the town into one of the key ports of the islands, with industry gathering by the tunnel entrance. Föroya Bjór brews beer and soft drinks here, and the town is the hub for the Northern Isles, with ferries to Kalsoy and helicopters to Svínoy and Fugloy.

Life is lived around the harbour and on the steep slopes on either side of it. A frequent bus connects the town with Tórshavn, and since 2014 a town bus has linked the outlying districts with the centre. Most shops serve local people rather than visitors.

Klaksvík eats as the rest of the Faroes does, from a tradition built on lamb and fish and on old methods of preservation. Skerpikjøt, well-aged, wind-dried mutton, is the most popular treat, dried in a slatted shed, the hjallur, beside many homes; ræst kjøt is semi-dried mutton and ræstur fiskur matured fish. Tvøst og spik, pilot-whale meat and blubber, comes from the grindadráp, the traditional drive hunt of pilot whales, which is defended locally as essential to Faroese culture and criticised abroad.

Fresh fish from the North Atlantic is eaten all year, which suits a town whose harbour is full of fishing boats, and there is fish and chips by the quay. Popular tastes have moved closer to the European norm in recent decades, with more vegetables on the table.

The town's own contribution is beer. Föroya Bjór, founded in Klaksvík in 1888 and one of the oldest companies in the islands, has been the only Faroese producer of beer and soft drinks since 2007, and has exported to Iceland since 2009. Since a change in the law in 2011, Faroese breweries may brew strong beer, though stronger drinks are still sold only through the government shops and licensed venues.